Civilized Keelers: The Death of Shidane Arone
Mircea
THE DEATH OF SHIDANE ARONE
Shidane Arone's Capture
At approximately 2045 hours on March 16, 1993, an unarmed 16-year-old Somali
youth, Shidane Abukar Arone, was captured in an abandoned U.S. Seabees compound,
located beside the 2 Commando compound. Mr. Arone was captured by Sgt Hillier,
Tpr MacGillvray and Capt Sox. (Capt Sox had replaced Sgt Skipton on patrol for a
short period of time because Sgt Skipton had a scheduled phone call to make.)
Mr. Arone was fully dressed and did not offer any resistance.
When Sgt Skip ton returned, he saw that the captured Somali was in good physical
shape. After the capture, Capt Sox ordered Pte Brown, who had been assigned to
guard the 2 Commando gate from 2000 to 2300 hours, to locate the person in
charge of front gate security to tell him to come back to where the prisoner was
being held. Pte Brown found MCpl Matchee, who was the second in command to Sgt
Boland (and Pte Brown's and Pte Brocklebank's immediate superior) and returned
with him to Capt Sox. Capt Sox then assigned MCpl Matchee to guard the prisoner.
By this time Mr. Arone was bound by his ankles and wrists and had a baton stuck
between his arms and his body behind his back. Over the course of the next two
and a half to three hours, Mr. Arone was severely and brutally beaten and burned
with cigarettes by MCpl Matchee, with the acquiescence and perhaps the help of
Pte Brown. Mr Arone was rendered unconscious from time to time by the beatings.
When conscious, he reportedly was required to yell "Canada, Canada".
Sgt Boland arrived shortly before 2100 hours to relieve MCpl Matchee. At that
point, Maj Seward, Capt Sox, MWO Mills, and WO Murphy were in or around the
bunker. They left shortly after Sgt Boland arrived. At about 2130 hours, Sgt
Boland and Sgt Skipton cut off the plastic cuffs binding Mr. Arone's ankles and
arranged for looser wrist bindings. While Sgt Boland was present, Sgt Skipton
secured the baton by pulling a sash cord over one end of it, pulling the cord
over a beam in the roof of the bunker and tying it to the other end of the
baton.
The Torture of Shidane Arone
While Sgt Boland was present, MCpl Matchee retied Mr. Arone's ankles. He also
removed one of Mr. Arone's garments and tied it around the young Somali's head.
MCpl Matchee then proceeded to pour water over Mr Arone's head. Sgt Boland told
him to stop or the prisoner would suffocate. (Sgt Boland's testimony suggested
that MCpl Matchee may have been trying to give the Somali prisoner a drink by
pouring water on his cheek.) MCpl Matchee remained for some time during Sgt
Boland's guard duty, which lasted from 2100 to 2200 hours. MCpl Matchee then
left the bunker and returned later with Pte Brown, who was to relieve Sgt
Boland.
In Sgt Boland's presence, Pte Brown punched Mr Arone in the jaw (although in Sgt
Boland's court martial testimony he referred only to Pte Brown having said
something to the prisoner). As Sgt Boland went off duty, he said to Pte Brown
and MCpl Matchee, "I don't care what you do, just don't kill the guy."
(According to Sgt Boland, he had remarked "don't kill him", and he described
this as having been said "in a facetious sort of way, sarcastic".)
MCpl Matchee stayed in the bunker with Pte Brown after 2200 hours, during which
time both men hit and kicked the prisoner in his ribs and legs. MCpl Matchee
also kicked Mr. Arone in his face. MCpl Matchee said to Pte Brown, "I want to
kill this fucker, I want to kill this guy", and continued to beat the young
Somali until his mouth bled. MCpl Matchee left to go to the tent of Cpl McKay,
where he drank some beer. Sgt Boland arrived at the tent and had a beer with
MCpl Matchee and Cpl McKay.
MCpl Matchee said that Pte Brown had been hitting Mr. Arone and that he,
Matchee, intended to burn the soles of the Somali's feet with a cigarette. Sgt
Boland reportedly said, "Don't do that, it would leave too many marks. Use a
phone book on him." (During the courts martial, Sgt Boland confirmed that this
discussion took place, but he said he did not believe MCpl Matchee and thought
he was just trying to get a reaction. He said that his own reply was sarcastic
and that the discussion of the phone book was "flip, banter", there being no
phone books available.) After this conversation, Sgt Boland went to bed without
returning to the bunker. MCpl Matchee returned to the bunker at about 2245 hours
and proceeded, with the acquiescence or assistance of Pte Brown, to beat Mr.
Arone to death.
Sgt Boland testified at the courts martial that he believed Pte Brown to be a
weak soldier from whom he would not have expected aggressive treatment of a
prisoner. He also claimed that he was not aware of the aggressive tendencies of
MCpl Matchee, who had just been assigned to his section. However, there was
other evidence that Sgt Boland knew what MCpl Matchee was like and that MCpl
Matchee's reputation as a bully was well known within 4 Platoon.
Pte Brocklebank had gone to bed early on the night of March 16th, suffering from
dysentery, without any knowledge that he would be assigned to guard duty later
that night. From the time he went to bed until he was awakened by MCpl Matchee
he did not get up, and he had no knowledge of the capture of Shidane Arone.
However, at about 2300 hours, MCpl Matchee awakened Pte Brocklebank, saying
"You're on shift. I got a surprise for you." As Pte Brocklebank was on his way
to his sentry post at the 2 Commando gate, he was ordered by MCpl Matchee to
come to the bunker. Pte Brown testified at the courts-martial that Pte
Brocklebank arrived at the bunker at about 2308 hours to relieve him from guard
duty.
At the bunker, MCpl Matchee told Pte Brocklebank to give him his pistol. Pte
Brown testified at the courts martial that Pte Brocklebank seemed puzzled by
this and told MCpl Matchee, "but it's loaded". Responding to an order from MCpl
Matchee, Pte Brocklebank handed over his weapon, which was then held to the head
of the prisoner by MCpl Matchee. According to evidence at the courts martial,
MCpl Matchee held the pistol to Mr. Arone's head and told Pte Brown to take his
picture.
Existing photographs leave no room for doubt that Mr. Arone had, at that time,
suffered a very severe beating. After this, MCpl Matchee returned Pte
Brocklebank's weapon to him and Pte Brown left the bunker. Pte Brocklebank
remained outside the bunker while MCpl Matchee continued torturing the prisoner.
While he was urinating at the north-west corner of the compound, Pte Brown heard
Mr. Arone screaming. At one point, MCpl Matchee left to get a cigarette, leaving
Pte Brocklebank alone with the prisoner. Pte Brocklebank provided a written
statement on March 29, 1993, in which he stated that at the end of his shift "I
was leaving to get the next sentry up. I told the CP [command post] to watch
the bunker and I left to make my rounds." At his court martial, Pte Brocklebank
testified that he had meant to say in his statement, ''watch the front gate" and
not "watch the bunker". However, when Pte Brocklebank left the bunker, he did
not try to stop Mr. Arone's ordeal by reporting the matter to any of MCpl
Matchee's superiors.
At about 11:45 p. m., Pte Brocklebank woke Cpl Glass, who was to take the next
gate sentry duty. Pte Brocklebank also woke Cpl McKay so that he could make his
telephone call home. While waiting to use the phone, Pte Brocklebank told Cpl
McKay that MCpl Matchee had beaten the prisoner, and that he thought that what
was going on was wrong.
A number of Canadian soldiers passed the bunker where Mr. Arone was being held,
but no one made any attempt to stop the beating. Cpl McDonald saw Pte Brown and
MCpl Matchee beating Mr. Arone before the arrival of Pte Brocklebank. He
returned to the command post where he told his superior officer, Sgt Gresty,
that "the Somali prisoner is getting a good shit kicking". Sgt Gresty took no
action to go out and stop MCpl Matchee.
MCpl Giasson was on sentry duty within 427 Squadron lines from 2000 to 2400
hours on March 16th. During the course of his rounds, at about 2315 hours, MCpl
Giasson stopped at the bunker where the prisoner was held and witnessed some of
the beating. At that time, he testified at the courts martial, Mr. Arone was
bleeding from the lip and looked in rough shape.
MCpl Matchee remarked to MCpl Giasson that in Somalia, the police would shoot
the prisoner, and that "in Canada we can't do it but here they let us do it, and
the NCO are aware of it". He stated that MCpl Matchee then took a two- to
three-foot hollow aluminum pipe that he, MCpl Giasson, carried with him on his
rounds. He testified at the courts martial that he did not intervene because he
feared for his own safety. The next morning, he and his partner, MCpl Alaire,
reported the incident to the CO.
Pte Glass testified at the courts martial that Sgt Lloyd had previously told him
that there was a prisoner in the bunker who had to be guarded as part of his
gate security shift. Pte Glass told Sgt Skipton that MCpl Matchee was beating
the Somali prisoner shortly after he entered the area of the bunker. At about
2400 hours, Pte Glass asked Sgt Hillier to come and look at the prisoner. After
seeing Mr. Arone, Sgt Hillier went to the command post and informed the duty
officer, WO Reese, about Mr. Arone's condition. While Sgt Hillier was at the
command post, Sgt Skipton entered the bunker, removed the cuffs which
had been placed on the young Somali's wrists and checked for a pulse. When he
could not find one, Sgt Skipton went to the command post to inform Sgt Hillier,
who went to awaken Capt Sox to inform him of the prisoner's condition.
The Death of Shidane Arone
During the time that Mr. Arone was being tortured and beaten to death, there
were a number of Canadian soldiers in both the command and sentry posts. The
distance from the command post to the bunker was 84 feet; from the sentry post
to the bunker, 59 feet; from the bunker to the observation tower in Service
Commando (across the road from the 2 Commando compound), 214 feet. At about 2200
hours, Cpl MacDonald, Sgt Gresty, Mohammed (the interpreter), Maj Seward, MWO
Mills, and Capt Sox were in the command post. Cpl MacDonald reported hearing a
"yelp" from the bunker. Cpl MacDonald testified at Sgt Gresty's court martial:
"I recall everybody kind of looking in the direction of the bunker, and then
just kind of went back to what they were doing." There was also evidence that
soldiers in the observation tower heard screaming (at a distance of 214 feet).
Shortly after midnight, Mr. Arone was dead. Most of the beating was administered
by MCpl Matchee. Pte Brown was present during much but not all of the beating.
Pte Brown admitted that at an early stage of the prisoner's ordeal he had
punched him once in the jaw and kicked him twice in the leg. There was evidence
from other soldiers who visited the bunker that Pte Brown appeared calm or
bored, or as if "he didn't want to be there", or was "upset" or "shocked". MCpl
Matchee, on the other hand, according to witnesses at the courts-martial,
appeared "pumped up", and spoke frequently and expressed satisfaction at what
was happening. Evidence was also heard at the courts-martial that Pte Brown did
not like MCpl Matchee and was scared of him. MCpl Matchee was described as a
violent person with a quick temper, and he had apparently been drinking that
night.
The exact cause of Mr. Arone's death was never determined, because no autopsy
was performed. Medical evidence based on photographs and the description of the
beating was that the death was probably caused by brain swelling resulting from
the cumulative effects of blows to the head. Lacerations on the deceased's face
were probably caused by blows with a fist, and such blows may have had a
concussive effect, contributing to Mr. Arone's death. Death was preceded,
however, by prolonged and severe pain and suffering.