Somalia Scandal - Canadian Airborne Regiment
Floyd Low
From Floyd Low <ad...@freenet.carleton.ca>
Those of you out there may not have heard about the Canadian Airborne
Regiment and the trouble it hit one night during the Somalian deployment.
For more info suggest you email the poster below.
Article 89318 of can.politics:
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From: as...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Jeff Connel)
Subject: The Somalia Court Martial and Coverup
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Organization: The National Capital FreeNet
Date: Mon, 18 Jul 1994 21:24:17 GMT
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Exterps from esprit de corps magazine v4 issue 2
Faced with a steady increase in infiltrators and thieves being apprehended
inside his compound, Major Anthony Seward went into the town of Belet Uen
to speak with the local authoroties. At that point the procedure was for
Canadians to turn over anyone caught inside their wire as soon as it was
possible to arrange transport down to the Somali police station.
Unfortunately, there was no way that these prisoners could be detained or
punished in any way. The newly formed constabulary simply could not afford
to feed any inmates from their own meagre supplies. The solution offered
by them to Major Seward "just shoot the first two or three thieves, to
establish a deterrent".
Throughout Operation Deliverance the Airborne Regiment employed a number
of local translators who were also used to provide Canadians with military
intelligence overview. Any hostile actions could then be presumably
foreseen and either preented or thrwarted. IN the days following the death
of Shidane Arone these translators were presseed to determine the mood of
the villagers and how they might react. The initial response from these
informants was one of incredulity: "Why would there be any outrage? He was
just a thief!"
"Arone was definately apprehended on several occasions prior to 16 March.
Whether it was 17 timnes exactly I cannot immedately confirm."
Major Mackay/DCO Airborne Regiment
"We had our perimeter set up with 3 rows of concertina razor wire, it was
lit with floodlights and strings of light bulbs. IN addition we had trip
flares set up inside the wire and strings of tin cans to alert our roving
patrols. Our guard towers used night observation devices to cscan all
approaches, but thieves still managed to get in with alarming regularity."
Sgt Hooyer/ 4pl 2co
"These guys would strip down naked (because their cloth skirts would catch
in the razor wire). Then they'd worm their way through inch by inch, all
the time virtually motionless and undetectable. It could take them over an
hour to crawl through the ten metres of confertina."
Sft Greg Janes/ Unit Medical Station.
----------------------------
"You've gotta remember that Matchee is a big guy, about 6'3". Brown's only
about 5'6" and at least 50 lbs lighter. The company commander gave us the
order to abuse the prisoners, the platoon commander reiterated it and
Matchee was Brown's immediate supervisor. The only way that Brown could
have stopped Matchee that night was if he drew down on him [pointed his
rifle at him] and the mood that Matchee was in, he probably would have had
to pull the trigger." Sgt. Greg Janes.
"Trp Brown had a clear conduct sheet. He'd never been in trouble before.
MCpl Matchee on the other hand was a different story." Major Mackay
"In retrospect, I regret using the word "abuse" in reference to the
handling of prisoners." Major Anthony Seward/ Trp Brown's Company Commander
"If you have to beat the shit out of them, that's OK."
Captain Michael Sox/ Trp Brown's Platoon Commander.
"When I checked out the bunker, the Somali had a black eye and was sitting
upright. Matchee was all pumped up and Brown looked like he'd rather have
been anywhere but in that cell. There is no doubt in my mind that Kyle
Brown did not cause the Somali's death." Sgt Hooyer
"You want to know how the guys here really feel? They're pissed. Major
Seward gives the order to beat the shit out of these Somalis, and he gets
off with f-ck all. Kyle Brown follows orders and what does he get? Five
years and the boot - with disgrace! The attitude now is, if these guys
(officers) aren't going to be held responsible for their orders, why the
hell should we follow them? I don't just mean controversial stuff, I'm
talking about everything from where to dig a ditch or string a telephone
cable.
"As for Brown coming clean about what happened, well look what he got for
his trouble. The message NDHQ is sending is loud and clear: If anything
happens, nobody saw a thing, nobody heard a thing. Personally I've put in
for my release, and so have a lot of the other guys. The whole thing stinks."
"The old guard can't believe that today's officer corps has sunk to this
state. Something is drastially wrong when a Major lets one of his soldiers
take the rap for obeying his orders. There's no honour anymore. No sense of
tradition. That's sad." Colonel Marmot (ret'd)
"Kyle Brown was convicted by court martial of manslaughter and torture. I
can't say however, that I agree with his sentene...Major Seward receiving
just a reprimand. Now that was a complete shock." LGeneral Gordon Reay
"I'm under no obligation to disclose my Branch affiliation. In fact, I
don't even want my name used in association with that court martial."
Major Richard Wyville/(one of five panel members at the trial of Kyle Brown.
-----------------------
Upset by horrific events he'd witnessed, Tpr. Kyle Brown confided in two
senior non-commissioned officers and described to them the whole affair in
sordid detail. Following Brown's disclosure, in what amounts to a virtual
mutiny in terms of military hierarchy, several NCO's approached their
company commander to demand eh explain the "non-investigation".
"The medical officer believes the prisoner died of injuries he
received when he was apprehended," said Major Anthony Seward. "Case closed!"
Present in the tent was Sgt. Joseph Hillier, who had not only captured
Arone, but had heard Brown's account. There and then, to a man and to
their credit, the NCO's of 2 Commando decided that the maroon beret was
not about killing defenceless captives. Case re-opened! MCpl Matchee was
arrested and Brown was thanked for his co-operation.
At that time, neither the NCOs nor Kyle Brown could have known about the
communications which had been transmitted between Somalia and National
Defence Headquarters regarding this incident. Documents show that just two
hours after Arone's death, the Airborne Regiment had informed top brass,
including Kim Campbell, of what had transpired. The message noted that "an
investigation is underway, statements, photos of the body, the holdnig
area, and area of scuffle to follow." It was stamped secret.
Since the magnitude of the event was obviously clear to him, Major
Seward's subsequent inactivity cannot be explained by anything other than
direct orders from NDHQ to suppress the whole thing. Tpr. Kyle Brown is
currently serving a five year prison term for following his orders. Major
Seward got off with a reprimand for keeping quiet about his.
Had the Airborne Regiment simply followed NDHQ's orders Arone's body
would have been quietly disposed of and other than a routine press
release, the matter would have been quickly concluded. In retrospect,
actually telling the public the truth as it became known would have
been preferable to this attempt at subterfguge, but at that time, Defence
Minster Kim Campbell had just announced her candidacy for the PC
Leadership. Not wanting any potential political fallout, Campbell's
handlers disregarded several senior generals' wishes and initiated
the original coverup.
As events unravelled, the media interest heightened. Internal documents
show that Kim Campbell's office knew of Arone's death as early as 6:30pm
on 16 March 1993, and by 26 March she knew it was being treated as a
homocide. However she refused to offer public comment on 31 March when
the story was leaked to the press, because she "had no prior knowledge of
the incident."
Less than two weeks after Arone's murder was made public, Kim Campbell's
damage controllers had widened the homocide investigation into a Board of
Inquiry to examine unspecified "systemic problems" within the Airborne
Regiment.
Enter the 1989 photo of Cpl matt Mackay posing in Nazi Paraphenelia and
giving a straight arm salute. CBC was the first to take up
white-supremacist allegations but surprisingly, Esprit de Corps was
contacted by two seperate news agencies the night before this story broke.
Those who contacted us had been given a "scoop" - they knew of CBCs
intentions- and were looking for our comments on this issue. Was this a
mere co-incidence?
The next day the Chief of the Defence Staff immediately prepared a
"media-wide" reprimand denouncing this "yellow journalism" which defamed
the entier Armed Frorces on the thinnest of pretexts. This rebuttal,
however, was never sent: Defence Minster Campbell overruled Admiral
Anderson's decision. "That wasn't the way she wanted it handled," said
Brigadier-General Matte, then Director-General of Public Affairs.
Lt-General Gordon Reay was the only senior officer to openly challenge the
media for "using my soldiers as whipping boys to get at Kim Campbell." The
next day, General Reay received a ministerial inquiry questioning his
"authority to make such statements." He too had been effectively silenced.
Bill Dunphy, The Toronto Sun reporter who first put the allegations in
print has since admitted, "that was the lowest point in my journalistic
career. I didn't want CBC to beat me with the story."
At this critical juncture, Brigadier Michel Matt was fired as head of
Public Affairs and replaced by a civilian, Bob Gonzales. Although a former
military type, Gonzales had cut his teeth on the political side of DND's
house, and had close Tory connections.
Unfortunately, instead of defending their own soldiers, Public Affairs
deliberately attempted to denigrate the Airborne Regiment as a whole and
were entirely successful. So just who were they protecting?
-----------------------
Major-General Lewis Mackenzie visited the Airborne in Somalia shortly after
his retirement. During the course of his visit, Mackenzie met with Shidane
Arone's father and they discussed the death of his son while in Canadian
custody. At this point the Canadian government had already paid the
customary 1,000 camel remuneratoin to Arone, Sr., and according to
Mackenzie "he pleaded with me to have the Ariborne stay in Belet Uen."
The Editor of the Ottawa Citizen believes:
>From ac583 Sun Jul 17 22:32:55 1994
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From: ac...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Peter Calamai)
To: ad169
Subject: Re: Airborne Regiment - Somalia Citizen 16 Jul
Cc: ac583
Reply-To: ac583
>
>
> While the whole story, speaking as a member of the Canadian Forces
>is horrifying, it has been dealt with in the court martial system.
>
> Why are you, as a member of the media, continuing to "Salt the Earth"?
It would be hard to argue that the stories from Stephen Bindman from the
court martial came anywhere near close to telling the story from the point
of view of the Somali who died or provided the details of the truly brutal
way in which he died. The Star piece which we condensed from a five-page
report in their paper is by far the most comprehensive account of this
whole affair, which deserves to be given maximum and continuing publicity.
If the media accepted your argument, we would have stopped publicizing the
treatment of the Inuit who were forcibly relocated in the Arctic after the
first report of a Commons committee a decade ago, Then there would not
have been a second Commons inquiry and finally a Royal Commission.
Similarly, the current issue of Espirit de Corps magazine argues that
several of the senior officers who have not been charged should be
court-martialed and that Kyle (sp?) Brown has been made a scapegoat. I
don't think the whole story is YET known.
--
Peter Calamai
Editorial page editor, The Ottawa Citizen
email:ac...@freenet.carleton.ca
As this is all public domain stuff I thought NetLand Battle types would
want to know.
Ralph Sporay are you out there?
--
Jul 18. Back to work after 2 weeks holidays. What horror awaits on my email?