Belgian troops tortured, murdered Somalis
By Norm Dixon
Leaked photographs and eyewitness accounts reveal that elite Belgian paratroopers assigned to the United Nations US-led "Operation Restore Hope" mission in Somalia in 1993 engaged in vicious acts of torture and murdered Somali civilians, including children.
A former paratrooper gave the Het Laatste Nieuws newspaper graphic photographs showing a paratrooper urinating on the face of a dead Somali, and a beggar being forced to eat his own vomit.
Another photo shows soldiers roasting a child over an open fire. The child was severely burned, the paper's informant said. Two paratroopers have been charged with assault and battery over the burning.
The witness said that troops had locked a Somali accused of theft in a shipping container and left him in the summer heat for two days. When they opened the container, the man was dead.
Another witness, with more photos, came forward on April 16. A dead child in a photograph had been murdered by Belgian troops, the witness said.
Two years ago, 15 Belgian paratroopers were put on trial over human rights abuses — including mock executions of children, torture and murder — committed in Somalia. Most were acquitted, a few given suspended sentences and only one jailed — five years for manslaughter after killing a Somali in an attempt to cover up the soldier's role in a theft.
Canada's elite airborne regiment was disbanded after Canadian troops were found to have murdered and tortured Somalis.