Released papers reveal attempts to cover up Britain’s criminal past

international | rights, freedoms and repression | other press Wednesday May 02, 2012 13:59 by Jean Shaoul joemcivor at gmail dot com

Other Press link submitted by Joe McIvor

The persistence shown by Kenyan torture victims and relatives of those tortured and murdered during the Kenyan insurgency have forced the British government to admit that to cover up its crimes, the British Colonial Office in 1958 began a "highly organised" process of document destruction and removal that required “ massive administrative manpower on the ground.”

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has now released thousands of files it previously claimed had been “lost” after Britain withdrew from its former colonies.

While it was denying all allegations of brutality in its colonies , the UK government was “systematically culling the evidence. It set in place procedures for designating files for destruction or removal, marking about 3.5 tons of documents for destruction, and thousands more for transfer to Britain.”

The UK government now says that it will publish material covering Aden (now part of Yemen), Anguilla, Bahamas, Basutoland (now Lesotho), Bechuanaland (now Botswana), British Indian Ocean Territories, Brunei, Cyprus, Kenya, Malaya (now part of Malaysia), Sarawak (now part of Malaysia) and the Seychelles.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/may2012/keny-m02.shtml