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Canadian IFOR Troops Accused of Beatings, Sex in Bosnian Mental Hospital
‘I have noted a number of incidents that cause me considerable concern as they bring dishonor and discredit to the vast majority of our service members.’
On Wednesday, Lt. Gen. Maurice Baril confirmed that new information has substantiated charges that Canadian soldiers committed a series of abuses while stationed at the Bakovici mental hospital between October 1993 and April 1994. "I have noted a number of incidents that cause me considerable concern as they bring dishonor and discredit to the vast majority of our service members," Baril said.
It is the second major scandal to arise from recent Canadian peacekeeping missions. Army morale has been battered by a long-running investigation of abuses by soldiers in Somalia in 1993, including the torture-slaying of a Somali teenager. Baril said there is "clear evidence" of misconduct that included alcohol abuse, sexual misconduct, black-market activity, violence against patients, loss of a weapon, and failure to assist a seriously wounded Bosnian Serb.
Military police will investigate, Baril told a news conference at the Canadian Forces base in Saint-Hubert, near Montreal. The alleged misconduct involved members of the 12th Armored Regiment, based at Valcartier, near Quebec City.
Officers who displayed "unacceptable behavior" will be removed from positions of command and assigned other duties, said Baril. "We must acknowledge the fact that we have a leadership problem in our ranks."
The allegations of wrongdoing first came to light in a report published in Esprit de Corps military magazine, which obtained a January 1995 briefing memo for Defense Minister David Collenette on the case. The document, obtained under the Access to Information Act, said staff at a mental hospital in Bosnia had accused Canadian peacekeepers in 1994 of misconduct.
Some military personnel suggested the source of the allegations was hospital staff disgruntled about 12th Regiment personnel trying to stop their black-market trade in United Nations-furnished aid supplies. The 12th Regiment soldiers were hailed as heroes in the fall of 1993 for feeding, clothing and defending more than 300 starving patients found in the abandoned and disease-ridden Bakovici hospital. Soldiers remained at the hospital helping care for patients until the spring of 1994.
Earlier this year, after the initial investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing, an army official suggested Bosnian politics played a role in the allegations. "Every time some propagandist in Yugoslavia wanted to hit the Canadians with something, they alleged we were raping and pillaging," said Col. Peter Maclaren, director-general of security at National Defense Headquarters.
The Canadian army’s image already has been seriously tarnished by the Somalia scandal. While several enlisted men have been court-martialed and convicted for abuses committed in Somalia, a government-appointed commission continues to move through often-tedious public hearings to determine if higher-ranking officers engaged in a cover-up. |
TORONTO, July 17, (AP) - Citing new evidence of misconduct, an army commander ordered a second investigation Wednesday into charges that Canadian peacekeepers beat patients and had sex with nurses at a mental hospital in Bosnia. Reports of misconduct by peacekeepers in Bosnia had been circulating for months, but an earlier investigation found no evidence to back up the complaints.
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