September 21, 2009

OTTAWA — Although it was acknowledged among Canadian troops and some military police that Afghan security personnel were sexually abusing children, investigators took just 11 weeks to determine there was nothing to the concerns raised by a soldier who said he witnessed such an incident, according to Defence Department records.

The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service decided not to send any of its investigative team to Afghanistan but came to its initial determination by early October 2008 that there was little to a soldier’s claim he had seen two Afghans sodomizing a young boy at the Canadian installation outside Kandahar.

But MPs from the NDP and Liberal parties say the NIS investigation is flawed and it’s time for the military investigators to step aside and an outside and independent organization be brought in to get to the bottom of what happened.

The NIS was given the task to look into the allegations on July 18, 2008, after the sex abuse issue was reported in the media and raised in the Commons. Dawn Black, the NDP defence critic at the time, had filed a complaint about the allegations.

According to the NIS, they conducted a thorough investigation that ended in May and determined the sex abuse allegations were unfounded.

But an e-mail sent by army commander Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie says the NIS had already concluded by Oct. 2, 2008, that there was nothing to the sex abuse claims. "An initial NIS investigation did not find anything substantive," Leslie wrote to Josee Touchette, the Defence Department’s assistant deputy minister for public affairs. Leslie told Touchette that to be thorough, a board of inquiry would also investigate the issue.

The sexual abuse of young boys by Afghan military and police personnel is so commonly known that Canadian and other foreign soldiers have coined a phrase for it; they call it "Man-Love Thursdays," although at least one soldier has noted that the rape of kids also took place on other days.

Two soldiers have already come forward to outline details about alleged sexual abuse of children at the hands of Afghan personnel at Canada’s Forward Operating Base Wilson in Afghanistan. Travis Schouten, then a corporal, said he saw two Afghan security members sodomizing a boy at the base in 2006.

Canadian soldier Tyrel Braaten also told the Toronto Star he saw a boy no more than 12 years old brought into the same base dressed in a wig and wearing lipstick. He was told by an Afghan interpreter the boy was "one of the bitches" and he later heard him crying in the nearby building. Three military chaplains have also come forward to detail their concerns about the sex abuse incidents and how that was affecting the mental health of Canadian soldiers.

In addition, military records obtained by the Ottawa Citizen are raising questions about the extent of the NIS investigation. A June 2008 e-mail from Lt.-Col. Stephane Grenier confirmed army staff and Defence Department officials held two meetings in the summer/fall of 2007 over the concern that Afghan national army and police were "having anal sex with young boys." A member of Leslie’s executive staff and one of his public affairs officers were involved in one of those meetings, according to the e-mail.

Other Defence Department records show military police also raised concerns about the issue and were told not to interfere in such incidents as they would not be supported in their actions by their chain of command.

Asked by the Ottawa Citizen whether 11 weeks was enough time to come to the conclusion there was nothing to the sex abuse allegations, NIS deputy commander Maj. Francis Bolduc said he did not know where Leslie got his information.

Bolduc said the NIS investigation wrapped up in May of this year and "during the course of our investigation we determined the initial allegation concerning such incidents contained serious discrepancies."

Bolduc suggested the Ottawa Citizen talk to Leslie. The newspaper requested an interview with the general on the sex abuse issue but it was declined. An army official noted that since a separate board of inquiry is still looking into the issue it would be inappropriate for Leslie to comment.

In addition, Bolduc said the NIS could find no reports about sexual abuse complaints in the military police system and that allegations of abuse were never reported to the chain of command. "We put a high priority on this investigation," he noted. "We interviewed all persons who could have information."

The Ottawa Citizen, however, has obtained a Defence Department e-mail noting that one military police officer in 2005-06 complained about a sexual abuse incident involving Afghans to his chain of command. In that case, the Canadian commander complained to an Afghan officer who put a stop to the abuse. All the documents were obtained through the Access to Information law.

The NIS said it interviewed close to 40 people for its investigation. Bolduc said investigators weren’t sent to Afghanistan because most of the people needed to be interviewed were in Canada.

But the NDP’s defence critic, Jack Harris, questions the validity of the NIS report. "My initial reaction to the report was that it doesn’t ring true and it still doesn’t ring true that all of these allegations can be dismissed as having no substance at all," Harris said. "It doesn’t pass the sniff test."

He said it is time for an outside police force to investigate.

Liberal MP Bryon Wilfert, vice-chairman of the special standing committee on Afghanistan, also suggested it is time for an outside police agency to become involved in investigating the sex assault issue. "There’s always questions in the public mind whether certain organizations should investigate themselves," Wilfert said. "I think the severity of these allegations are such and (the NIS report) seems to fly in the face of pretty credible witnesses who have come forward."

Ottawa Citizen

- dpugliesethecitizen.canwest.com
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