28 JUNE

WORRIES ABOUT THE WRONG SORT OF SPIN OVER GUANTANAMO. Writing in his diary on 16 January 2002, Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s Director of Communications, expressed his deep concern over the potential political fallout from a recent statement by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld which had attracted unwelcome media attention. Please feel welcome to post comments…

OFFICER IN KENYA’S COLONIAL POLICE COMPLAINS OF A CULTURE OF COVERING UP ABUSES AND TORTURE [ 23 December 1954 ] Duncan McPherson, Assistant Commissioner of Kenya’s colonial police, was a rare exception to the norm of complete British indifference to the suffering of ordinary Kenyans. TONY BLAIR ACCEPTS HOLIDAY HOSPITALITY FROM DICTATOR MUBARAK [ 23…

FAMINE IN BRITISH CONCENTRATION CAMP FOR SOUTH AFRICAN BOERS [ 24 January 1901 ] By January 1901, British troops had been engaged for over a year in a prolonged military campaign in South Africa to quell an insurgency by elusive Boer rebels who were demanding greater independence.  Please feel welcome to post comments below.  If…

“WE STAND NO NONSENSE HERE” – BRITISH OFFICER EXPLAINS MASS EXECUTIONS. [ 26 June 1857 ] On this day in 1857, during the Indian Mutiny, a British artillery officer stationed at Peshawar wrote a report explaining that “in these times of danger and treachery, we don’t bother ourselves about the quirks of law, but hang,…

MARTIAL LAW IN CEYLON, HUNDREDS SHOT ON SIGHT, THOUSANDS ARRESTED [ 2 June 1915 ] On 2 June 1915, Sir Robert Chalmers, the governor of Ceylon, on the pretext that ethnic rioting between Muslims and Sinhalese Buddhists had been provoked by German agents, declared martial law. There was, however, no evidence to suggest any German…