PAUL BRACCHI reports from a community in shock
Bassingbourn became home to a controversial programme for Libyan cadets
Aim was to give leadership skills to 2,000 cadets to help war-torn country
MoD promised soldiers would not be allowed off barracks, residents say
But the village has been swamped by drunkenness, theft and violent clashes
A culture of anarchy also seems to have prevailed inside the barracks
Police are now investigating allegations of male rape and sexual assaults
Five cadets in police custody following sex assaults in Cambridge last month
David Cameron said none of the cadets should be granted asylum in the UK
Head of the British Army said the soldiers' behaviour was ‘beyond the pale’
One soldier claimed Government did not tell recruits 'about British law'
Until last
night, the Libyan flag was still flying at full mast over Bassingbourn
Barracks. Before it was lowered, it was perhaps the most visible sign,
at least from the outside, that things have been far from normal at this
military establishment for some months.
Inside
the 200-acre site near Cambridge, an old aircraft hangar has been
converted into a mosque. Signs are displayed in Arabic. The living
quarters have been refurbished to reflect Muslim religious and cultural
sensitivities (individual shower cubicles replacing open-plan washing
facilities because Islam forbids a man from seeing another man naked).
Even
a monument erected in honour of U.S. servicemen — who took off for
sorties over Nazi-occupied Germany in B-17 bombers from the former RAF
base — was fenced off when cadets from post-Gaddafi Libya arrived in
Bassingbourn in June.
Front line: Allegations of male rape
and sexual assaults on local women have emerged in Bassingbourn village,
where a controversial training programme was launched to give
leadership skills to 2,000 Libyan cadets
Why?
Because it was thought the statue, featuring the propeller of a B-17,
would upset them; U.S.-Libyan relations have been strained since
President Ronald Reagan ordered air strikes on Tripoli back in the
Eighties.
It
has been five months since the tricolour flag of post-Gaddafi Libya was
first hoisted alongside the Union Jack at Bassingbourn, to mark the
start of a training programme to give leadership skills to a total of
2,000 hand-picked Libyan cadets to help their war-torn country. Until
yesterday, there were 236 Libyans at the base. But far from teaching
leadership, it seems their sojourn to the UK had the opposite effect.
Drunkenness,
theft, violent clashes with British troops and in-fighting between the
Libyans themselves had become an almost daily occurrence. More
disturbing, allegations of a male rape and sexual attacks on three local
woman are now being investigated. Meanwhile, the lanes and cul-de-sacs
in the vicinity of the barracks have been teeming with police dispatched
in an attempt to allay local fears.
It
was easy to forget, as yet another squad car and marked van passed
along the quaint High Street this week, that this is
Bassingbourn-cum-Kneesworth (pop; 3,500).
This village
is often described as one of the most peaceful in the country. It is a
place where the theft of a bike, say, or a potted plant, would most
likely make headlines in the local newspaper. Could anyone living here
ever have imagined a scenario where a sensibly-dressed young woman would
be advised to ‘cover-up’ her bare arms when she bumped into a group of
Libyans at the bank in the middle of the afternoon? Well, that is
exactly what happened a couple of weekends ago.
Perhaps
most extraordinarily, the suggestion to cover up was made by a British
soldier — a member of the Royal Highland Fusiliers, in charge of the
Libyan party.
Could
anyone have imagined, either, that a girl living near the barracks
would be told, by British military police one morning, to stay at home
for her ‘own safety’? Or that police armed with Heckler & Koch
submachine guns and Glock pistols would be spotted standing near
Hattie’s coffee shop in the early hours of the morning?
One
local who saw them as he drove through the village said they were the
kind of officers you’d normally expect to see at an airport or the scene
of a terrorist alert.
Omar Al-Mukhtar, one of the recruits who is not accused, claimed the Government didn’t tell the soldiers 'about British law'
The situation in Bassingbourn made headlines this week when shocking details emerged of the behaviour of the Libyan soldiers.
An
angry David Cameron told the House of Commons that the Libyans’ conduct
was unacceptable and insisted none of the cadets should be granted
asylum here. He then said the Government programme to train Libya’s army
would be scrapped and all the trainees deported.
The
head of the British Army, General Sir Nicholas Carter, admitted the
behaviour of Libyan soldiers who went on the rampage outside their
barracks was ‘beyond the pale’. But behind the heightened security,
behind Mr Cameron’s stern words, behind the decision to finally send the
Libyan troops home in disgrace, is a story of betrayal and broken
promises.
Residents
say they were given cast-iron assurances by the Ministry of Defence
last year that the soldiers would not be allowed off the barracks (there
is a shop and other facilities on the huge site) during the rolling
programme of 24-week courses in basic infantry and command training for
up to 2,000 Libyans.
We
now know, though, that the rules were relaxed — without consulting the
local community — to allow recruits out on ‘carefully- managed daytime
escorted trips’.
This
is Whitehall parlance which in practice meant the Libyans being driven
in a minibus to Cambridge, or another nearby town or village, and then
being told to be back at the bus at a certain time. Residents were also
assured the men had been ‘vetted in advance for medical, physical and
behavioural suitability’.
We
now know, however, from a senior Libyan officer, that some of the young
men — who hail from remote areas — had never seen a woman before other
than their mothers and sisters and were totally unprepared for life in
Britain.
Not
all the soldiers were to blame for recent events. But five cadets are
in police custody following a series of sex assaults in Cambridge last
month. One in ten of the men, by the MoD’s own admission, refused to
obey orders.
A
culture of what can only be described as near anarchy seems to have
prevailed inside the barracks — as evidenced by the compelling testimony
of the wife of a British soldier based at the camp.
All
cleaning brooms, for example, were removed from the establishment, she
told us, because the Libyans began taking the broom heads off and using
the handles as makeshift weapons against each other in mass brawls,
which frequently broke out inside the base.
Masked Libyan cadets issued a statement after allegations surfaced that anarchy had prevailed inside the barracks
In
addition, extra personnel had to be brought in at mealtimes to stop the
Libyans repeatedly trying to steal knives from the kitchen.
Female
British soldiers boarding at the barracks had to be accompanied at all
times by male colleagues. ‘The women soldiers on site couldn’t be left
alone,’ said the woman, who asked to remain anonymous. ‘It was not
considered a safe place to be.’
The decision to allow the Libyan contingent to leave the compound unsupervised seems particularly scandalous.
Nor, insists the soldier’s wife, was it just women who were potentially at risk at Bassingbourn Barracks.
One
young, slightly-built British soldier serving in the canteen attracted
the attention of a group of his Libyan counterparts. They approached
their translator with a question: Could they ‘buy him?’
‘They
wanted him for sex,’ said the soldier’s wife. ‘They kept asking the
translator how much “he” would cost so they could have him and rape him.
I don’t know whether that is something that happens in their culture or
not, but there just weren’t enough British soldiers at the base to cope
with or control all of the Libyans.’
They wanted to buy a British soldier for sex. They kept asking the translator how much "he" would cost so they could rape him
An
extraordinary claim. And in the febrile atmosphere of Bassingbourn
Barracks it is very possible that exaggerated or even baseless rumours
have gained currency. However, the very fact they are believed reveals
how serious the situation at Bassingbourn has become. Remember, too,
that allegations of a male rape are among those known to be under
investigation involving the recruits.
Only
last Sunday, Libyan troops are alleged to have started a blaze in the
supermarket inside the base. Firemen spent an hour at the scene.
The
central question, however, remains what happened outside the camp. Why
were these men who came from a country that resembles the set of a Mad
Max film allowed to come and go almost as they pleased?
Until
recent days, security was so lax, even those who did not obtain
permission to leave the camp found no difficulty in ‘escaping’. Resident
Carol Saunders, 50, told how she saw cadets jumping into taxis from the
front of the barracks. On another occasion, she had seen them stocking
up on bottles of high-strength vodka in a nearby store.
Down the road in Royston, more than £1,000 was reportedly spent on alcohol on a single visit to Tesco.
‘I
know people who work in that branch and they told me Libyan soldiers
sometimes take alcohol without paying for it,’ said one young woman.
‘They put the drinks under their arms and walk out.’
A few streets away, we met the young girl who had that encounter with a group of Libyans outside Lloyds bank last month.
Three coaches with the remaining
recruits left the barracks in the early hours of yesterday. As the
convoy disappeared, the Libyan flag was lowered for the final time
The
petite brunette, 24, who works in a cafe, was wearing the same work
clothes as she was then: baggy pantaloons, crew neck top and
short-sleeved cardigan. ‘One of the two British soldiers who was with
the Libyans came up to me and said, ‘You might want to cover up because
the Libyans are coming out,”’ she said.
‘Moments
later, they did come out and they began looking me up and down as if
they had never seen a girl before. They were ogling me, one also staring
at me angrily.
‘So I don’t know if it was sexual thing or if he thought I should be wearing a burka or something.
‘It
wasn’t even as if I was wearing anything provocative. Only my arms were
exposed and some of my neckline. But I found the experience very
intimidating.’
The
incident occurred just days before another group of Libyans left the
barracks and went to Cambridge, where they are alleged to have raped a
man and sexually assaulted a string of women.
Two
have already pleaded guilty to the assaults on the women. The men are
said to have behaved ‘as a pack’ as they hunted down their victims,
before groping them and attempting to put their hands up their skirts,
magistrates heard last week.
I think the MoD have handled the whole thing appallingly. They’ve lied right from the start
Peter Robinson, head of Bassingbourn Parish Council
News
of what happened soon spread through Bassingbourn. On Facebook, a
message from one resident read: ‘There has been an escape. Lock your
doors and windows.’
Shortly
afterwards, the barracks was put into lockdown. Units of the 2 Scots,
the Royal Highland Fusiliers, were sent to restore discipline at
Bassingbourn and the perimeter fence was lined with prison-style razor
wire.
Yet,
until recently, Bassingbourn Barracks was at the heart of the
community. Thousands of people a year used the facilities on the
200-acre site, including a fishing lake, golf course, hockey pitch,
badminton court and a winter sports centre.
Peter
Robinson, head of Bassingbourn Parish Council, says: ‘The Ministry of
Defence closed all facilities on site to local people on security
grounds in March 2013, long before the arrival of the Libyans.’ Yet
recent events, he says, have proved ‘their own security was leaky as a
sieve’.
‘I
think the MoD have handled the whole thing appallingly. They’ve lied
right from the start. They always knew, presumably, that they would let
these trainees out on their own, but we were told from the very
beginning that they would never be let out unaccompanied.’
The
MoD declined to address the specific allegations in this article, but
said ‘appropriate measures’ have been taken to tackle the disciplinary
issues.
Three
coaches with the remaining recruits left the barracks in the early
hours of yesterday. As the convoy disappeared, the Libyan flag was
lowered for the final time.
At
least four of the Libyans have claimed asylum, but the Prime Minister
has indicated that this would not be granted. But, while their
application is being processed, they will remain here.
Among
the departing Libyans was Omar Al-Mukhtar, who was not one of the
accused soldiers. This week he gave an interview to the BBC portraying
the men arrested in connection with the sex assaults in Cambridge as the
real victims. ‘They (the Government) didn’t tell us about British law
and what’s the difference between right and wrong,’ he said.
Which makes the decision to let him and his compatriots loose on this corner of rural England all the more shocking.
Additional reporting: Jack Evans.