US soldiers investigated over sexual assault claims
AMERICAN military officials are investigating allegations that US soldiers
have sexually assaulted US servicewomen in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The US military in Baghdad confirmed that about 40 women in the army had
alleged they were attacked in the past year. Allegations have also been made
involving incidents in Afghanistan and Kuwait.
In Washington this week members of Congress expressed shock that more than
100 women on active duty had reported attempted rapes, rapes and other
assaults.
The Pentagon sought to deflect criticism with the publication of a report
which showed that the proportion of servicewomen reporting violations had
fallen to 3pc in 2002 from 5pc in 1995.
However, the study's margin of error was two percentage points, suggesting
that the level of attacks might barely have dropped since 1995.
Saxby Chambliss, a Republican Senator from Georgia, said the number of
assaults was "shocking". Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, said US
servicewomen sometimes had "more to fear from fellow soldiers than the
enemy".
Victims' advocates fear that the reported cases could be the tip of the
iceberg.
Women in a combat zone may be reluctant to report assaults for fear of
irritating the military hierarchy.
Les Brownlee, the acting army secretary, conceded under questioning from a
Senate Armed Services Committee panel that many cases went unreported. He
said a taskforce would address the problem.
The troubling statistics come at a time when women are playing a more
prominent role in the US military, including in Iraq.
Most women soldiers serve at vast logistics centres far from the heat of
battle where soldiers spend many weeks at a time, awaiting orders to go into
action.
About 6,400 of the 214,000 women on active duty were assaulted, the 2002
study revealed.
It noted that 14,000 men reported that someone on the military's payroll had
tried to force them to have sex or actually raped them, a smaller proportion
of the 1.4m men on active duty. (© The Times, London)
Elaine Monaghan
in Washington
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| User: "TonyZ2001" |
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| Title: Re: So Chris is in the us ARMED FORCES |
28 Feb 2004 07:37:19 AM |
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"WH"
US soldiers investigated over sexual >assault claims
Stop making those bets involving women and sexual favors, then maybe you would
obsess over me so much.
Tony
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