Carol Mathieu, authorized his men to shoot looters in the legs if they ran from soldiers patrolling the compound. Another senior officer granted permission for thieves to be captured and abused. On several occasions through January and February of , Canadian soldiers fired at Somalis fleeing from the camp. In some cases, they had taken intruders into custody, beating them and taking trophy-style photographs of their captives.
None of these actions led to any discipline against the troops who carried them out. Then on the night of 4 March , a small group of Canadian troops laid a trap for people trying to sneak into the compound: they left food and water as bait near a perimeter fence and waited in the dark. Two Somalis broke through the fence and grabbed the food.
When the soldiers ordered the intruders to halt, the Somalis fled. The Canadians shot both in the back, killing a man named Achmed Aruush. More than a week later, on the night of 16 March a year-old named Shidane Arone, broke into the compound and was taken prisoner. Tied up and blindfolded in a holding area, the teenager was beaten and tortured for hours — punched and kicked, the soles of his feet burned with a cigarillo and his shins struck with a metal bar.
Much of his suffering was photographed by his abusers, including paratroopers Master-Cpl. Clayton Matchee and Private Kyle Brown. The immediate result of the crimes in Somalia was the court-martial of Pvt. Kyle Brown. Convicted of manslaughter and torture, he was sentenced to five years and dismissed from the military see Military Justice System. Brown was released from prison after less than two years.
The brain-damaged Matchee was found unfit to stand trial and was never prosecuted. Another soldier who witnessed the beating pleaded guilty to negligent performance of duty and was briefly imprisoned and demoted. Mathieu, the Airborne commander, was also charged with minor offences, but was acquitted. No-one else was convicted in relation to the deaths of Arone or of Achmed Aruush, the Somali man killed on the night of 4 March.
After serving his time in prison, Brown wrote a book called Scapegoat , claiming that he and other low-ranking soldiers were made to take the blame for crimes in Somalia that had been witnessed and condoned by senior officers. Barry Armstrong, a military doctor who served in Somalia, came forward with allegations that while Aruush had been wounded by shots in his back and buttocks while running away from soldiers, he was ultimately killed with an execution-style gunshot to the back of his head.
In January , a videotape surfaced showing Airborne soldiers taking part in disturbing and racist initiation rites. No Canadian government — conservative or liberal — has attempted to re-establish the Airborne in the 25 years since. Collenette said the disbandment decision was simply the only option that he was left with. But Collenette offered a note of optimism. The Somalia affair is widely considered one of the darkest chapters in Canadian military history and seriously damaged its reputation as a peacekeeping force.
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