Troops' families unite in anger

Deepcut relatives threatened to go to the High Court

Families of soldiers who died at Deepcut Barracks are uniting with relatives of troops killed in Iraq over the way the army handles such deaths.

They complain the Ministry of Defence does not give out enough information and holds boards of inquiry in secret.

Reg Keys, whose son Thomas was killed in Iraq last year, told reporters on Wednesday: "When we try to get information, we just hit a brick wall."

The MoD says it does try to hard to support bereaved families.

'Not suicide'

The five families who joined together at a news conference are putting five questions to Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon.

The MoD has refused calls for a public inquiry saying it would not give extra understanding after "exhaustive" investigations into how recruits at Deepcut died from gunshots between 1995 and 2002.

The families do not accept the soldiers killed themselves.

Des James and Reg Keys first met last week

Mr Keys was joined on Wednesday by the families of Cheryl James, 18, Geoff Gray, 17, and James Collinson, 17 and Wayne Richards, 17.

It was the start of a joint campaign between the two groups of families over complaints about the MoD.

Montgomeryshire MP Lembit Opik said other families of troops killed in Iraq were set to join the campaign because of the "striking similarity" between the way the MoD handled the deaths.

"Despite the fact that Geoff Hoon has implied that problems have been resolved, eight years after Cheryl James' death a bereaved family has experienced exactly the same problems," he said.

Among the questions the group is posing are:

• Why do ministers refuse to hold an independent inquiry into the Deepcut deaths on the basis of Surrey Police's investigation when neither ministers nor the families have seen the results of that investigation?

• Why was the government determined to ensure accountability over the Soham murders but has made no army or police officer accountable over Deepcut?

• What do ministers say to families who describe secrecy, delay and frustration in obtaining board of inquiry reports?

Secrecy

Mr Keys' son was among the six Royal Military Policemen killed in an ambush at a police station in the southern Iraqi town of Al Majar al-Kabir.

"The army do their dirty washing behind a locked door," he said, complaining families and their lawyers were kept out of inquiry board hearings.

Mr Keys accused the MoD of treating troop deaths as like losing a piece of military hardware.

He said he had obtained a copy of an agreement signed by a British officer to say coalition troops would stay out of Al Majar al-Kabir at the time of the ambush.

But his son and colleagues had not been briefed about the agreement, nor had the agreement been shown to the board of inquiry, he claimed.

Answers call

Des James, Cheryl's father, said: "What we're trying to illustrate is that the MoD would have us all believe 'we don't treat families like we did in 1995'.

"In actual fact, we have examples all around."

An MoD spokeswoman said the ministry fully understood the desire of bereaved families to know the circumstances of their loved ones' deaths.

"We try very hard to provide proper support to bereaved families, and constantly review the way in which we are doing this to ensure that it is sensitive to families' needs," she said.

"We recognise that mistakes in providing this support have been made in the past and are determined that these should not be repeated."

Criminal and military investigations were currently under way into the military policemen's death so it was premature to consider a further inquiry, she added.