MP's anger over Iraq row

'Absolute disgrace' that human rights abuses continued

Tony Blair's human rights envoy in Iraq has called for people to stop "grinding on" about weapons of mass destruction.

Ann Clwyd, a Labour left-winger who supported the war on Iraq, says people should be focusing their attention on the humanitarian crisis in the country, which has seen thousands of people killed and tortured over 35 years.

Ms Clwyd, MP for Cynon Valley, was speaking out as Mr Blair came under pressure over the way the government made the case for war in Iraq, with coalition forces yet to find weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith repeated his call for a full independent inquiry into whether intelligence documents on Iraq's weapons were changed on the orders of Downing Street to strengthen the case for military action.

I find it exasperating when I stand at the edge of a mass grave containing 10,000 bodies and people say: 'Where are the weapons of mass destruction?

Ann Clwyd

On Wednesday the Lib Dems, backed by the Tories, were defeated in a motion calling for a judicial inquiry into the matter, by 301 votes to 203.

UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix also added his weight to the row by criticising the quality of intelligence given to him by the US and Britain about Iraq's alleged WMD.

But Ms Clwyd, who has been travelling round Iraq gathering information about human rights violations to report back to the prime minister, said she found the claims "exasperating".

None so blind

"The fact is that thousands of people were being killed for 35 years and it is an absolute disgrace that the world allowed this to go on for so long," she told BBC Radio 4's the World At One.

"I have been involved with human rights in Iraq for 25 years and the evidence was always there - the evidence of the Kurds being killed, the Shias, the despotic nature of the regime, the summary executions, the torture.

"The story was there - it was as though the world was holding its hands over its ears and over its eyes.

"But now the truth is out. I think to carp on about finding weapons of mass destruction, which may be desirable, when the humanitarian reasons for this war are so evident, I simply cannot understand - neither can ordinary Iraqis, because I went out of my way over the last week and a half to find out what they felt."

Evidence

Ms Clwyd said it was not right for people to say the weapons do not exist.

"Tony Blair and other people believe that they do exist - they simply have not yet been found," she said.

As the Iraqis themselves say, the biggest weapon of mass destruction was Saddam Hussein himself

Ann Clwyd

"The ordinary Iraqis cannot understand why people in the UK are grinding on about this.

"I find it exasperating when I stand at the edge of a mass grave containing 10,000 bodies and people say: 'Where are the weapons of mass destruction?'

"As the Iraqis themselves say, the biggest weapon of mass destruction was Saddam Hussein himself.

"The evidence is there for you to see."

Ms Clwyd backed war with Iraq on the grounds of the human rights record of Saddam Hussein's regime, which she compared with Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge.

In 1991 she became the first MP to highlight the plight of Kurdish refugees fleeing attack from Saddam's forces.

She is a founder of Indict which sought to bring criminal charges against the former Iraqi leader under international laws.