ianstone
10-10-2010, 01:33 PM
Military confirms one sexual assault at Afghan base
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/3622707.bin?size=620x465 Handout photo
Capt. Nichola Goddard
<LI sizcache="17" sizset="212">
Amy Minsky, Postmedia News · Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2010
OTTAWA — The Canadian military has investigated just five reports of sexual assault in Afghanistan since 2004, with only one investigation leading to a guilty verdict — a number that contrasts sharply with the picture painted in a new book about a female soldier.
In one of her letters, Cpt. Nichola Goddard, who in 2006 became the first Canadian female combat death, refers to a week in the camp during which there were six rapes in one week. Other letters, many of which were sent to her husband, Jason Beam, illustrate an environment where women working on the base were frequent targets of sexual harassment, constantly being ogled.
“I don’t want to speculate on what Cpt. Goddard wrote in a letter to her husband. It’s sensitive,” said Maj. Paule Poulin, spokeswoman for the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal and the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service, the investigative arms of the military police. “But you have to remember, Canadians are not the only ones at Kandahar Airfield. It’s a multinational environment.”
Thousands of people, from a number of different countries, are stationed at the camp, Poulin said, describing it as a “small village.”
In 2006, the year Goddard was inAfghanistan, one female Canadian Forces member reported a case of sexual assault, Poulin said. Because the suspect in that case was an Afghan male, the case was referred to the Afghan National Police, who charged the man with sexual assault and later found him guilty.
Another female forces member filed a report in 2009 for an incident that allegedly occurred at a forward operating base in 2006. The suspect in that case, also an Afghan male, was never identified because too much time had passed since the alleged assault, and the forces member wasn’t able to provide an adequate physical description, Poulin said.
The three other investigations — reported in 2005, 2007 and 2008 — were closed after the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service determined they were unfounded.
Despite the relatively low numbers provided by the military police, one researcher has suggested that women in the military are not comfortable talking about or reporting incidents of sexual abuse or harassment.
In an interview on Monday, Karen Davis, a retired lieutenant-commander and current defence scientist at the Canadian Forces Leadership Institute, discussed an ongoing project that encourages women with deployment experience to record their accounts.
“A couple of years ago, I had focused quite heavily on the women coming back from Afghanistan, trying to get them to write, but there was a fair bit of reluctance,” she said. “I wasn’t really sure where it was coming from, but I knew we were up against a barrier, trying to get women to talk about their experiences in Afghanistan.”
A 2008 report from the Canadian Forces Marshal Provost indicated 170 incidents of sexual assault in the military that year, down from 176 in 2007 and 201 in 2006. The data includes all reported incidents, regardless of the outcome of the investigation.
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/3622707.bin?size=620x465 Handout photo
Capt. Nichola Goddard
<LI sizcache="17" sizset="212">
Amy Minsky, Postmedia News · Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2010
OTTAWA — The Canadian military has investigated just five reports of sexual assault in Afghanistan since 2004, with only one investigation leading to a guilty verdict — a number that contrasts sharply with the picture painted in a new book about a female soldier.
In one of her letters, Cpt. Nichola Goddard, who in 2006 became the first Canadian female combat death, refers to a week in the camp during which there were six rapes in one week. Other letters, many of which were sent to her husband, Jason Beam, illustrate an environment where women working on the base were frequent targets of sexual harassment, constantly being ogled.
“I don’t want to speculate on what Cpt. Goddard wrote in a letter to her husband. It’s sensitive,” said Maj. Paule Poulin, spokeswoman for the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal and the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service, the investigative arms of the military police. “But you have to remember, Canadians are not the only ones at Kandahar Airfield. It’s a multinational environment.”
Thousands of people, from a number of different countries, are stationed at the camp, Poulin said, describing it as a “small village.”
In 2006, the year Goddard was inAfghanistan, one female Canadian Forces member reported a case of sexual assault, Poulin said. Because the suspect in that case was an Afghan male, the case was referred to the Afghan National Police, who charged the man with sexual assault and later found him guilty.
Another female forces member filed a report in 2009 for an incident that allegedly occurred at a forward operating base in 2006. The suspect in that case, also an Afghan male, was never identified because too much time had passed since the alleged assault, and the forces member wasn’t able to provide an adequate physical description, Poulin said.
The three other investigations — reported in 2005, 2007 and 2008 — were closed after the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service determined they were unfounded.
Despite the relatively low numbers provided by the military police, one researcher has suggested that women in the military are not comfortable talking about or reporting incidents of sexual abuse or harassment.
In an interview on Monday, Karen Davis, a retired lieutenant-commander and current defence scientist at the Canadian Forces Leadership Institute, discussed an ongoing project that encourages women with deployment experience to record their accounts.
“A couple of years ago, I had focused quite heavily on the women coming back from Afghanistan, trying to get them to write, but there was a fair bit of reluctance,” she said. “I wasn’t really sure where it was coming from, but I knew we were up against a barrier, trying to get women to talk about their experiences in Afghanistan.”
A 2008 report from the Canadian Forces Marshal Provost indicated 170 incidents of sexual assault in the military that year, down from 176 in 2007 and 201 in 2006. The data includes all reported incidents, regardless of the outcome of the investigation.