posted on Jul, 24 2003 @ 06:49 AM
Well we all know that some soldiers, are bad people, but some are more insane than that, they think nobody is looking at them, or that what they do
won�t be punished.
Six hundred and fifty allegations of rape have so far been made against members of the UK army posted to Kenya for training over a period of more than
30 years, Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International said today.
"The fact that so many rape claims over such a long period of time were neither investigated nor prosecuted shows a systemic failure of the UK army
and may amount to institutional acquiescence which encouraged a pattern of grave human rights violations by members of the UK army."
Amnesty International has received information that UK Army officials in Kenya may have become aware of some of the rape allegations as early as
1977.
"It is particularly worrying that both the UK and Kenyan authorities failed to investigate these allegations, and the fact that there were no
repercussions for the perpetrators of these crimes inevitably contributed to their widespread repetition," Ms Khan said.
Speaking at the launch of a new report United Kingdom: Decades of impunity: Serious allegations of rape of Kenyan women by UK Army Personnel, Irene
Khan called on the UK government to establish without delay an independent and impartial commission of inquiry. The inquiry should examine the conduct
of the UK Army in light of hundreds of allegations of rape of Kenyan women by UK Army personnel over the course of more than three decades.
"The women and children born allegedly as a result of these attacks have been suffering in silence for over thirty years -- stigmatized,
discriminated and outcast within their own community. They have suffered a double injustice -- not only were they sexually abused but the crimes
against them have never been properly acknowledged let alone thoroughly investigated."
Rest of the article:
web.amnesty.org...