Time: Tue Jun 24 10:52:11 1997
by primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id KAA05907;
Tue, 24 Jun 1997 10:53:30 -0700 (MST)
by usr10.primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id KAA26218;
Tue, 24 Jun 1997 10:53:25 -0700 (MST)
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 1997 10:51:47 -0700
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SLS: Belgian UN troops admit to 'roasting' Somali boy (fwd)
<snip>
>
> Belgian UN troops admit to 'roasting' Somali boy
>
> by Robert Fox and AFP
>
>TWO Belgian paratroopers who were photographed "roasting" a Somali boy
>over a flaming brazier are expected to be jailed for only a month and
>fined #200 after admitting the atrocity in a military court in Brussels
>yesterday.
>
>Privates Claude Baert and Kurt Coelus faced a maximum of a year in jail
>but the prosecutor demanded only a month. Sentence will be passed on
>Monday. The case against a third soldier accused of atrocities during
>the United Nations "Restore Hope" mission three years ago was adjourned
>until September.
>
>Sgt Dirk Nassel is accused of forcing a young Somali to eat pork, drink
>salt water, and then eat his vomit. The three soldiers were charged with
>assault and threatening behaviour.
>
>A fourth member of the 3rd battalion of the Parachute Regiment, based at
>Tielen in Flanders, is also due to go on trial in September. Sergeant
>Major Rudy Derkinderen is suspected of having murdered a Somali whom he
>was photographed urinating on.
>
>The circumstances surrounding the death of another child at the
>paratroopers' base near Kismayo in southern Somalia are also under
>investigation. According to the testimony of two former paratroopers,
>the boy, who had been caught trying to steal food, died after being
>locked in a container for 48 hours.
>
>The Defence Minister, Jean-Pol Poncelet, has promised that any of the
>paratroopers found guilty of criminal acts in Somalia will be
>dishonourably discharged. Baert has already left the army but Coelus is
>now in the navy and Nassel has remained at Tielen.
>
>Mr Poncelet has also ordered an inquiry to establish whether the
>incidents were part of a broader pattern of abuse of the local
>population. If it is, he has promised to disband the 3rd battalion.
>
>Fifteen members of the regiment were investigated in 1995 for "acts of
>sadism and torture" against Somalian civilians.
>
>One paratrooper has been sentenced to five years, following the murder
>of a Somalian youth, who allegedly had uncovered illegal arms trading by
>the paratroopers. Belgium is the third country involved in the "Restore
>Hope" mission to charge its soldiers for serious misdemeanours against
>Somalian civilians, including rape, torture and murder. In 1995 a group
>of Canadian paratroopers were investigated for torturing a Somali to
>death and killing three others.
>
>The charges of indiscipline, racism, and the rituals for new members of
>the unit led to the Canadian Airborne Regiment being disbanded last
>year. Earlier this month gruesome photographs were published in a Milan
>magazine of Italian soldiers torturing a young Somali youth, and abusing
>and raping a young Somali girl. Two Italian generals involved in
>"Restore Hope" have subsequently resigned to clear the way for a major
>investigation of the unit involved, the Folgore (Lightning) Division
>currently deployed on peacekeeping duties in Albania.
>
>The Italian parliament has set up a major investigation and boards of
>inquiry of the Italian army are at work. Paratroopers of the Folgore
>claim that they were specifically trained in methods of torture to aid
>interrogation. According to one witness Italian soldiers tied a young
>Somali girl to the front of a armoured carrier and raped her while
>officers looked on.
>
>The witness told investigators: "When the officers wanted to have fun,
>everybody went along with it."
>
>Over the weekend an interpreter with the Italian force in Somalia
>accused a Folgore battalion commander of sexually abusing a 13-year-old
>Somali youth. The "Restore Hope" mission has become the most
>controversial of all recent peacekeeping operations undertaken under the
>UN banner. It was mandated in 1992 to provide medical aid and food after
>civil order in Somalia collapsed following the overthrow of the Marxist
>dictator Maj Gen Muhammad Siad Barri, after a 17-year civil war.
>
>The operation was directed by an American admiral, and spearheaded by
>American Marines. After the murder of 20 Pakistani soldiers in an ambush
>and the killing and dragging of two American Marines through the streets
>of Mogadishu, the American command moved from peacekeeping to offensive
>operations against the warlords running the main Somali cities,
>principally Mogadishu and Kismayo.
>
>Though they used helicopter gunships and area bombardment, the Americans
>failed to defeat the leading warlord, Gen Muhammad Farrah Aidid, and
>eventually the UN forces were ordered to withdraw. A common thread
>through the accusations against the Belgian, Italian and Canadian
>forces, is the racism of elite units, particularly airborne units, and
>their inability to adapt to low-intensity peacekeeping operations.
>
>Last week an Italian paratrooper said: "What's the big deal? They are
>just niggers anyway."
>
>The head of the UN's peacekeeping department, Under Secretary General
>Bernard Miyet, said: "The image of the United Nations has been
>tarnished."
>
>
>---------------------------------------------------------
>Get Your *Web-Based* Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
>---------------------------------------------------------
>
>-> Send "subscribe snetnews " to majordomo@world.std.com
>-> Posted by: "Brian Mosely" <bmosely@hotmail.com>
>
>
>
========================================================================
Paul Andrew Mitchell : Counselor at Law, federal witness
B.A., Political Science, UCLA; M.S., Public Administration, U.C. Irvine
tel: (520) 320-1514: machine; fax: (520) 320-1256: 24-hour/day-night
email: [address in tool bar] : using Eudora Pro 3.0.2 on 586 CPU
website: http://www.supremelaw.com : visit the Supreme Law Library now
ship to: c/o 2509 N. Campbell, #1776 : this is free speech, at its best
Tucson, Arizona state : state zone, not the federal zone
Postal Zone 85719/tdc : USPS delays first class w/o this
As agents of the Most High, we came here to establish justice. We shall
not leave, until our mission is accomplished and justice reigns eternal.
========================================================================
[This text formatted on-screen in Courier 11, non-proportional spacing.]
Return to Table of Contents for
Supreme Law School: E-mail