For no Westerner are working conditions in Baghdad normal. The suicide bombings - still randomly terrifying the Iraqi capital - the ever-present threat of kidnap, the restrictions on movement and the lonely isolation of those forced to leave their families behind, create an atmosphere of frustration, weariness and bravado. Tolerance is strained, working relationships can be fraught. This is especially true of the contractors sent to Iraq for short periods, who are impatient with the bureaucracy and have little time or incentive to learn anything of Iraq or its people.

It is, therefore, hardly surprising, though never excusable, if incidents occur between Westerners and Iraqis working for or with them. Allegations that several Iraqi staff at the British Embassy were molested by managers at KBR, the American company that employed them, are nevertheless particularly disturbing. It is not simply the damage done by allegedly offensive and insulting behaviour - damage that compounds the negative image many Iraqis have of the Europeans and Americans in their country; it is also the cavalier way in which these incidents were treated and the self-serving attempt by the Foreign Office to avoid a proper investigation.

In any society, sexual harassment is degrading. In Muslim societies it is especially heinous, for it not only subjects women to intimidation and dishonour, but it also condemns them in society's eyes as somehow complicit in having brought the shame upon themselves and their families. Those former KBR employees who summoned up the courage to speak of the alleged incidents were therefore doing so at considerable risk to themselves. It is extremely unlikely that they were motivated by malice or an attempt to extort compensation. It is also all too probable, unfortunately, that the men whom they accused of demanding sex in return for pay rises and promotion behaved as men in similar circumstances have behaved before - boorishly, aggressively and confident that they would not be found out.

Little wonder that their employers, faced with a potential scandal, should deny the charges, smear the accusers, defend their company's practices and insist there was no evidence to support the allegations. The legal framework is, in any case, murky. It is far from clear whether contracting companies operating in Iraq are bound by the country's civil and criminal code or whether they can be held to account by the military and civilian laws of coalition member states.

What is beyond any ambiguity is the disgraceful way in which the allegations were handled. It is a basic principle of justice that “no man is permitted to be judge in his own cause” (Nemo iudex in sua causa). Yet that is exactly what the Foreign Office allowed when the embassy wanted to have nothing to do with the affair and did not appoint any outside person or body to look at KBR's record. That the US company behaved cavalierly, to put it mildly, is evident from the disgraceful way in which the Iraqi staff were summarily dismissed without any proper hearing of their case or recourse to legal counsel.

The Foreign Office has been embarrassed on a sensitive issue at a sensitive time. Stonewalling may be a natural reaction. But it is wrong. The facts should be fully and independently investigated, the conclusions made public and the Iraqis' honour and demand for justice respected.