LONDON,
British
officials burned and dumped at sea documents from colonies that were
about to become independent in a systematic effort to hide their "dirty"
secrets, newly released files showed on Friday.
Under
"Operation Legacy", officials in Kenya, Uganda, Malaysia, Tanzania,
Jamaica and other former British colonial territories were briefed on
how to dispose of documents that "might embarrass Her Majesty's
Government".
Newly declassified Foreign Office files
reveal how the "splendid incinerator" at the Royal Navy base in
Singapore was used to destroy lorry loads of files from the region.
Other
officials wrote of documents being dumped "in deep and current-free
water at the maximum practicable distance from shore", according to the
documents in the National Archives.
One
dispatch from Kenya in 1961 mentions the formation of a committee
dealing with "'dirty' aspects of protective security" which would
"clean" Kenyan intelligence files, according to The Times newspaper.
The
British government agreed earlier this year to pay £14 million (16
million euros, $23 million) in compensation to more than 5,200 elderly
Kenyans who were tortured and abused during the 1950s Mau Mau uprising
against colonial rule.
FILES RELEASED ON FRIDAY
The
files released on Friday are the final batch of a collection whose
existence was only revealed by the Foreign Office in January 2011 as
part of the Kenyan action.
A Colonial Office telegram
of 3 May 1961 stated the general guidance for keeping papers out of the
hands of newly elected independent governments.
Items
should be disposed of if they "might embarrass members of the police,
military forces, public servants or others eg police informers; might
compromise sources of intelligence" -- or might be used "unethically" by
incoming ministers.
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