DoD: No policy prevents reporting of Afghan child abuse
By Leo Shane III and Andrew Tilghman, Staff writers 4:25 p.m. EDT September 21, 2015
The Pentagon is facing mounting pressure about its policy — or lack of a policy — regarding the rampant sexual abuse of young boys that is common in Afghanistan, particularly by men in the Afghan security forces.
Officials were reacting Monday to a New York Times report Sunday that U.S. military commanders looked the other way when Afghan allies tortured and abused young boys, as well as girls — sometimes on American bases — and punished several American service members who spoke out about the problem.
A Florida congressman demanded the Pentagon make clear its opposition to child sexual abuse and offer some protection for troops who tried to stop the heinous crime while serving in Afghanistan. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., called the revelations in the Times report disgraceful and disturbing.
“Protecting child predators is abhorrent and inconsistent with our values as a nation,” he wrote in a letter Monday to Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs. “It is bad enough if the Pentagon is telling our soldiers to ignore this type of barbaric and savage behavior, but it’s even worse if we are punishing those who try to stop it.”
Also on Monday, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif, fired off a letter asking the Pentagon to provide "any and all existing Department of Defense legal guidance regarding the reporting of child abuse." Hunter also recently asked the Defense Department's inspector general to review the Army's handling of a soldier who was punished for his aggressive response to the child sexual abuse in Afghanistan.
Top military officials said Monday that there is no written regulation requiring troops to turn a blind eye.
“There is no such policy that U.S. troops should not report or intervene in situations where children are being sexually abused,” said Army Col. Brian Tribus, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
For months, the military has faced a series of questions about how troops and their commanders responded to Afghan military men’s abuse of young boys, which is widely accepted in Afghanistan and known as “bacha bazi.”
Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla.
DoD is facing a lawsuit from a Marine who said he was wrongfully punished for drawing attention to reports of a high-ranking Afghan man’s alleged sexual assault of boys.
Earlier this summer, Hunter requested a review of facts in one of the retaliation cases for reporting sexual assaults, arguing that punishments handed out to at least one Army major ignored larger problems of corruption and abuse among Afghan officials.
Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a DoD spokesman, said at a Pentagon briefing Monday that the U.S. military finds the widespread reports of pedophilia among Afghan security forces to be "absolutely abhorrent,” but added that “it is fundamentally an Afghan law enforcement matter."
"Those are reports that are given over to the Afghan government,” Davis said. "We monitor these atrocities closely and we’ve repeatedly stood up for those who’ve suffered exploitation and denial of basic human freedoms.
“We work closely with the Afghan government and with their civil society and other organizations in Afghanistan to put an end to horrific practices like this. And we also incorporate human rights training into our training programs” with the Afghan security forces, Davis said.
Buchanan said that answer is insufficient.
“Fighting in a foreign theater should not require our service members to turn a blind eye towards criminal perversion,” he wrote. “Those who wear the uniform of the U.S. military should be commended, not punished, for upholding American values.”
http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/pentagon/2015/09/21/buchanan-nyt-sex-abuse/72567638/
