Torture by UN `peace keepers'

By Norm Dixon

Italian television on June 6 broadcast photographs of Italian troops torturing detainees during the US-led United Nations “Operation Restore Hope” occupation of Somalia in 1993.

The photographs, which were also published in the weekly news magazine Panorama, were taken by an Italian paratrooper who served with the Italian contingent. The photographs show troops attaching electric wires to the genitals of a prone prisoner.

The unit involved is currently serving in Albania. The now-retired paratrooper said Italian troops tortured detainees with electric shocks, burnt them with cigarettes, threw them into razor wire and left them in the sun for long periods without water. He had heard rumours that Somalis had been tortured to death.

The former paratrooper said that Italian troops, including officers, in Somalia brazenly displayed fascist symbols and gave the Roman (Nazi) salute at parade in the mornings.

In 1993, the Italian magazine Epoca in 1993 published photographs of Somalis being tied up and hoods being placed on their heads. A military inquiry at the time found the measures taken were “appropriate”.

In recent years, evidence has emerged that troops from the Canadian and Belgian contingents also tortured and murdered Somalis during the US-led “Operation Restore Hope” mission. Belgian troops roasted a child over an open fire and killed Somalis accused of stealing. Canada's elite airborne regiment was disbanded after its members were found guilty of murder and torture in Somalia.

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