Critics slam Afghan rape probe

The Canadian military's National Investigation Service is telling some witnesses it could take up to two years to investigate claims by Canadian soldiers that they've seen Afghan soldiers and interpreters raping young boys near Canadian bases outside Kandahar. That would leave the problem unresolved until about 2011–the year Prime Minister Stephen Harper has pledged to pull Canada's soldiers from the country–when the issue could well become moot. "It's unconscionable," said Michel Drapeau, a retired Canadian colonel who practises military law in Ottawa. "It's completely unacceptable that they would take two years. How many more boys will be forced to go through this before we finally get around to looking at this seriously?" Canadian investigators, who were initially slow to move on the claims, saying they lacked formal complaints, began reviewing the allegations in July at the request of military police. That followed comments by Gen. Rick Hillier, then Canada's top soldier, who said in June that Canadian soldiers have a duty to intervene when they see abuse committed. "We have all the authority we need," Hillier, who has since retired, told the Commons defence committee. "If somebody is being seriously abused and we are witness to it, we are not going to stand by ... no ambiguity from this chief of defence staff," Hillier told the committee, adding he'd just "reconfirmed that direction through the entire chain of command into Kandahar province." Soldiers who allege they have witnessed assaults are continuing to return home from Afghanistan seeking trauma counselling. The latest soldiers to request counselling are from a group of about 30 based in Newfoundland, said a senior military source who asked not to be identified. A medical officer is scheduled to go to Newfoundland to help the soldiers later this month. In June, the Star reported that several Canadian soldiers had complained about the abuse of Afghan children to military officers in Afghanistan and chaplains and medical staff in Canada. The first soldiers to complain said their allegations were ignored. John Pike, an analyst with GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington-based military think tank, said a two-year timetable is "preposterous." "Two years is enough time to complete your doctoral dissertation." By way of comparison, Pike said the U.S. military took mere weeks to complete an investigation into an Aug. 22 airstrike on a suspected Taliban compound in Azizabad, a town in the western province of Herat. Pike said the investigation was complex, but it was able to quickly conclude that 33 civilians had died in the strike–not the five to seven civilians the U.S. Army had said were killed. A Canadian Forces source confirmed that the investigation into abuse in Afghanistan remains "in a preliminary stage." "We are pulling together every detail on this issue, and an investigation is underway to establish the facts surrounding these allegations," a forces spokesperson wrote in an email. "No further details will be discussed so as not to compromise the ongoing investigation." Among the witnesses being pursued by the NIS is an American dog handler who was employed by the Canadian military and was stationed at a forward operating base. The dog handler allegedly witnessed rapes and complained to Canadian officers. The NIS hopes to determine whether the handler's complaint was ignored, a source said. The NIS could file criminal charges against Canadian military police or officers if it finds they ignored complaints. Yet investigators aren't sure they have jurisdiction to charge Afghans who may have committed rapes, even in the case of interpreters hired by Canada. "I'd say it would be almost impossible for the Canadians to prosecute Afghan citizens," said retired Canadian major general Richard Rohmer. The NIS has interviewed soldiers such as Cpl. Travis Schouten, a Sarnia native who in 2006 was based at Forward Operating Base Wilson in Afghanistan. Schouten said he heard an Afghan soldier raping a young boy at one of the outposts near Kandahar and later saw that the boy's lower intestines had fallen out of his body, a sign of trauma from the assault. Schouten has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome and the military intends to have him discharged. A Canadian military chaplain has said she has heard similar accounts from other soldiers. And Lt. Col. Stéphane Grenier said he counselled a British soldier who said he watched a young boy being raped by an Afghan soldier while his senior officer concluded a meeting nearby with Afghan army officers. The Afghan rape allegations are the subject of two investigations. Besides the NIS, a military board of inquiry is also examining the rape claims.