Recommendations

Rectifying the under-commemoration of Commonwealth casualties in Iraq, particularly historic inequalities affecting Indian and other non-European forces, will require sustained commitment and investment over multiple years. Immediate corrective action and credible long-term planning are essential.

Formal Acknowledgment and Direction

• The CWGC Commissioners should formally acknowledge long term and systematic failures in Iraq (including the period between 1958 and 1990), including missed commitments under the Non-Commemoration Project.
• Commissioners should direct CWGC to produce a credible, costed 5-year Iraq Strategy with defined milestones and reporting.

Appoint In-Country Leadership

• Appoint a local Iraq Country Manager immediately (contract basis acceptable to accelerate hiring).
• Establish an Iraq Advisory Board comprising individuals with direct country experience (heritage, security, diplomacy, construction) to guide strategy and oversight.

Fix Contractor Oversight

• Cease reliance on inappropriate or unsupervised contractors.
• Separate delivery from quality control: no contractor should both execute work and self-audit.

Restore CWGC presence in Iraq. CWGC staff must resume regular site visits. Claims that insurance or security prevents visits are not credible; peer organisations (British Museum, universities, UNESCO, international companies) operate in Iraq routinely.

Implement Independent Site Auditing

• Use embassies, expats, local contractors or organisations already operating in Iraq to conduct frequent independent site inspections.
• Simple outputs (photographs, short condition reports) are sufficient initially.

Leverage Existing International Footprints

Collaborate with more than just the UK Embassy:

• Commonwealth embassies, notably India given the majority of casualties are Indian Army, and Australia which has been active locally with these sites especially in Northgate.
• Polish, German and Turkish embassies
• UNESCO and UNAMI
• Universities active in Iraq (e.g. Cambridge, Durham, Penn, Harvard, Radboud)
• British and Commonwealth companies with in-country staff (e.g. BP)

Guarantee Access

Put formal procedures in place with local authorities to ensure visitors, CWGC staff, auditors, and contractors can reliably access sites (e.g. Basra Memorial, Habbaniya, and Mosul War Cemetery in the north).

Addressing obvious neglect will immediately signal care, deter vandalism, and improve safety.

Basra

• Clean, repair, and "pee-proof" gatehouses and WW2 memorial buildings using established protocols.
• Replace damaged signage and augment with more informational signage.
• Install paving at entrances, basic lighting, security cameras, and minimal landscaping.
• Site safety: appoint a local community guardian (as at Kut, Ma'Asker and Amara), contract local police to do nighttime patrols to deter antisocial behaviour, install security lighting and cameras, replace gates and access routes through the fence but ensure there is an agreed closing time with the local community to not interrupt their recreational sport use of the site.

Estimated cost: < £100,000, achievable within weeks by existing contractors.

Kut

• Replace faded and damaged signage.
• Replace Cross of Sacrifice.

Alwiya

• Contract local maintenance for weed control and security.
• Replace barbed wire fencing with a more appropriate boundary treatment.

Compensation and Recognition of Local Contributors

• Recognise and properly compensate local long term contributors including back pay where appropriate and retirement and succession planning.
• Regularise and compensate unpaid or under-paid local custodians.
• Formally recognise exceptional service (e.g. Mr Hasan at Amara).

Community Partnerships

In Basra, work directly with local football teams using the cemetery: provide seating and shade. Sponsor teams and employ members as groundskeepers/guardians. Maintain open communication channels (Arabic-speaking contacts, WhatsApp).

Local Government Liaison

Appoint named CWGC points of contact within municipal and provincial authorities.

Amara Left Bank Indian Cemetery

• Confirm CWGC land ownership.
• Erect boundary fencing and signage.
• Engage Amara Mayor's Office.
• Address encroachment by adjacent funfair (currently affecting ~30% of the site).

Khanaqin War Cemetery

• Erect boundary fencing and signage.

Contractor Reform

• Conduct formal performance audits of all contractors.
• Issue site-specific scopes of work with measurable outcomes.
• Appoint independent project managers for major works.
• Develop a network of local renovation, construction, horticultural, conservation architects and project managers, substantially lower cost than international security focussed firms (such as Pilgrims) and helps to develop community ties through investment and shared ownership in outcomes.
• Properly budget for ongoing maintenance and project based renovation work.

Update Records and Maps

• Update the inaccuracies and omissions on the CWGC website and social media channels.
• Commission new, accurate cemetery maps reflecting current realities to correct missing structures, incorrect grave plots, panel numbering errors, and omitted names across sites including Basra, Northgate, and Amara.
• Complete a history of these sites since 1958 to present including the fate of the Basra panels and gravestones removed by the British Army in 2003.

Resolve Encroachments

• Negotiate removal of illegal buildings from Basra Indian Forces Cemetery.
• Reinstall boundary fencing at the rear of Basra Indian Forces Cemetery.
• Negotiate a settlement with the Amara Fun Fair encroaching on Amara Indian Forces Cemetery (dependent if proof of ownership can be proved) and in cooperation with local government.

Build Iraqi Capacity

• Establish a training programme for Iraqi nationals in CWGC best practices (Egypt, France, UK).
• Create a sustainable local workforce and trusted companies for cemetery care, maintenance and restoration.
• Model this on successful programmes such as the British Museum's Iraq Scheme.

Incremental Site Rehabilitation

Deliver a rolling programme of small but visible improvements by site:

• Restore paths, walls, buildings and monuments.
• Re-install key CWGC architectural elements (War Stones, Crosses of Sacrifice).
• Introduce bilingual (Arabic/English) interpretive signage.
• Implement realistic horticultural plans using low-water plantings.

Cultural objections to CWGC monuments are overstated and unsupported by local precedent; damage or vandalism should be addressed as routine maintenance, as in the UK and elsewhere in the world.

Full European-style cemetery restoration is likely unrealistic given climate, cost, and resources. However, this is not necessary.

Sites such as Basra and Amara have functioned as memorial parks since the 1930s. Developing them deliberately as memorial parks integrated into local community life is viable, respectful, and historically consistent.

Low-cost memorial panels (stone or concrete rather than slate) can be reinstated at Basra and Basra Memorial with minimal technical complexity.

St. John's Wood Church Grounds (London) is a good model for this approach where an estimated 40,000 bodies are buried and is now a public park with children's swings and picnic tables but still very much a cemetery as well.