Canadian Military History

Volume 22 Issue 4 Article 6

2013

The Affair The Oxford Companion to Canadian Military History

J.L. Granatstein

Dean F. Oliver

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This Canadian War Museum is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Canadian Military History by an authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. and : The Somalia Affair The Oxford Companion to Canadian Military History

The Somalia Affair The Oxford Companion to Canadian Military History

J.L. Granatstein and Dean F. Oliver

n late 1992, the Mulroney breaking point by budget cuts and Little further happened until, in Igovernment dispatched the force reductions and a continuing 1994 and 1995, videos made by CAR Canadian Airborne Regiment string of high-profile and dangerous soldiers showed racist attitudes and (CAR) and, a few months later, international security deployments. vile acts during hazing rituals at a reconnaissance squadron from In 1992, the CAR, the Canadian Canadian Forces Base Petawawa, the the Royal Canadian Dragoons, to Forces’ quick reaction force, was CAR’s base. The resulting firestorm Somalia to serve in a United States- the only suitable combat unit not of public criticism all but forced run humanitarian peace enforcement already deployed, recovering from the minister of national defence in mission. The east African nation was a deployment, or preparing for one. the Chrétien government, David a failed state, with warlords fighting The regiment consisted of three Collenette, to order the disbandment and people starving, and a previous commandos (equivalent in size and of the Canadian Airborne Regiment (UN) operation had capability to infantry companies), on 5 March 1995. failed to establish control of the one each from the three regular force It was only the beginning. situation. The new Unified Task infantry regiments. On 20 March, the government Force was authorized by the United Stationed in the desert at a dot on appointed a Commission of Inquiry Nations as a Chapter VII intervention the map called Belet Huen, the CAR into the Deployment of Canadian under the UN Charter that could use lived in tents in the heat and dust, ate Forces to Somalia under Judge force to restore peace. packaged rations, and tried to restore In the early 1990s, the Canadian order in the midst of chaos. Locals Résumé : L’affaire somalienne a été Forces (CF) had been stretched to the tried to steal what they could from the l’événement militaire de la décennie. soldiers, and camp security had to be Horreur, mystère, drame, scandale; les médias en firent des gros titres. progressively tightened. There were Abstract: The Somalia Affair was Le caractère totalement vindicatif des the military event of the decade. many incidents, some shooting, and critiques côtoie toujours les plates Horror, mystery, drama, scandal: it several deaths of Somalis until, on excuses des autorités dans tous les was the perfect headline. The shrill 16 March 1993, 2 Commando caught écrits de l’époque. Nous avons écrit cette vindictiveness of critics still fences with a Somali teenager red-handed and entrée en pensant à ces deux éléments, the dull apologias of the establishment notre réflexion fermement ancrée tant took him captive. Two soldiers then in any reading of the period. We wrote sur la tragédie humaine et que sur le this entry with both irritants in mind, tortured and killed the boy, Shidane triomphe de l’être humain, ainsi que sur our thoughts fixed firmly on human Arone, taking trophy photographs of le fait que, même en expurgeant l’un, les tragedy and human triumph and how, the grisly beating. No one intervened, Canadiens ont malheureusement réussi in bowdlerizing one, had despite Arone’s repeated screams à diminuer les deux. Les historiens somehow diminished both. Historians devront se débattre pour retirer l’affaire and pleas for help and the proximity will struggle to wrest Somalia from somalienne des mains des polémistes, the polemicists’ grasp, to temper of his torture site to surrounding tents pour tempérer les feux d’artifice et la pyrotechnics and folk wisdom with and other positions. learned sagesse populaire par l’analyse, du analysis, perspective, or knowledge. of the death shortly afterwards, recul ou des connaissances. Nous avons We succumbed here to our own and there were some punishments succombé ici à nos propres déceptions, disappointments, so rhetoric intrudes et la rhétorique s’infiltre (et semble handed out by a CF board of inquiry. – and seems warranted, just the same. même nécessaire).

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A Canadian soldier stands watch in rear hatch of a Grizzly armoured personnel carrier as it patrols through a battle-damaged Somali town.

Gilles Letourneau, Judge Robert Access to Information Act had been cover-up. Most sensible observers Rutherford, and journalist/academic violated as senior officers apparently recognized an inquiry that had . The commission tried to protect their reputations become a headline-hunting fiasco, was to examine why the CAR was and those of their minister. Did this its yelps of mistreatment cloaking chosen for the mission, the events in represent evidence of systemic failure the steadily diminishing returns Somalia, and the post-deployment of command? One chief of the defence of an ever-growing mandate. The phase that involved an alleged cover- staff, , was forced resulting five-volume report was up at National Defence Headquarters to resign as a result of his disastrous unfortunately, if revealingly, titled after the torture and murder of testimony; other senior officers were Dishonoured Legacy: The Lessons of the Arone had become known. The tainted. The commission rolled Somalia Affair. It offered generally chair, Letourneau, was splenetic, along, demanding more money, an sensible recommendations on aggressive, and openly dismissive expanded mandate, and additional leadership, accountability, discipline, of many of those called to present time. personnel selection, training, and evidence, regularly badgering The government had had rules of engagement. In effect, the witnesses. This made sufficiently enough. After two years, a tough commissioners declared that no good television fodder that the and capable Liberal defence minister, future force should deploy without

commission’s hearings became a , ordered the slow- proper equipment, training, a Museum 19940035-018 Jeff by Speed, Canadian War Photo public trial of the Canadian Forces moving commission to produce its clear chain of command, and a full itself, even though much of the report promptly and closed it down understanding of its role. Had any coverage was devoted to the almost in early 1997. The commissioners, Canadian expeditionary force ever immaterial alteration of press releases the government’s political marched or sailed with such clarity at National Defence Headquarters. opponents, and some members of of purpose? Complex events and There was little public doubt that the the media cried censorship and uncertain outcomes rarely permitted https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol22/iss4/660 2 and : The Somalia Affair The Oxford Companion to Canadian Military History

such assurances. It was not the gazing to indispensable analysis. water to ease thirst, and generated report’s only broad-brush assertion. Every expert, it seemed, understood security to assist daily living in areas The commission also offered critical implicitly the deeper causes of the under Canadian military control. comments on the Somalia mission, on Somalia imbroglio, though none – for Several individuals were decorated the cover-up of the torture and murder reasons that remained nameless – had for acts of uncommon bravery, while and other incidents, and it focused on proffered wisdom before or during the force as a whole – the airborne, 12 officers, including seven generals, the ill-fated mission. Pompous reports mechanized units, engineers, pronouncing them “failures.” It made on “lessons learned” were more often doctors, and helicopter pilots – was 160 recommendations in all, of which than not lists of authors’ favourites, lauded by the campaign’s American the government eventually accepted uncompromised by perspective; commander (and many Somalis) as 132. It was a reasonable response to helpful “recommendations” one of outstanding professionalism a long and gruelling investigation flowed, unbothered by hypocrisy, and competence, perhaps the best in and painful public flogging, rendered from the military’s fiercest critics. the entire international command. quickly and with government thanks Everyone purported to have the In the short term, such kudos to still-grumbling ex-commissioners answer, and most overlooked the mattered little. The Somalia mission and a suspicious Canadian public. obvious, Arone’s murder and the became synonymous in public

Photo by Jeff Speed, Canadian War Museum 19940035-017 Jeff by Speed, Canadian War Photo Subsidiary research or Airborne’s disciplinary misdeeds parlance with the Somalia inquiry that investigative reports produced at the notwithstanding: in truth, the meant, of course, the Somalia scandal commission’s behest, ranging from a Canadian Forces had performed or, less judgmentally, the Somalia sociological review of military “tribes” superbly. On a difficult mission affair (the title used here). Its result, to an assessment of the mission’s marred by international apathy and aside from the eventual disbandment international security lessons, ran local chaos, they had disarmed the of the Canadian Airborne Regiment, the gamut from forgettable navel- violent, fed the hungry, provided was much greater caution and

Master Corporal Patrick Couture, a member of the Canadian Airborne Regiment, inventories confiscated weapons. Photo by Jeff Speed, Canadian War Museum 19940035-018 Jeff by Speed, Canadian War Photo

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much greater risk aversion among Canadian Forces personnel and a fear that Ottawa might not support independent initiatives on future missions. The military soon seemed to believe that advice from the judge advocate general was a precondition for any action. There were rules and regulations for everything, thick studies to bury all operational likelihoods in layers of bureaucratic twaddle, special training on ethics, accountability, racism, gender discrimination, and, more helpfully for impending deployments overseas, greater attention to local customs, languages, social attitudes, and living conditions. Attempts to regulate all Photo by Jeff Speed, Canadian War Museum 19940035-013 Jeff by Speed, Canadian War Photo conduct in the field bred hesitancy and mistrust, failings that showed in deployments in former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Somalia generated disgust aplenty at the behaviour of some soldiers and their commanders, but surprising sophistication in public attitudes toward the long- suffering military. Opinion surveys found astonishing support for the men and women in uniform, and understandable distaste at how the Airborne’s now well-publicized antics before and after the mission could have been permitted to flourish and to undermine proud traditions. Had emphasis on a supposedly American-style warrior ethic hijacked sound doctrine and effective discipline? Had an accumulation of defence cuts and a careerist high command ignored basic principles of management, leadership, and esprit de corps? There was more truth in bold Photo by Jeff Speed, Canadian War Museum 19940035-015 Jeff by Speed, Canadian War Photo charges than media-shy military chiefs cared to admit. The Somalia episode over much of a decade consumed careers, directorates,

forests of paper, and eons of media Museum 19940035-020 Jeff by Speed, Canadian War Photo time. Parliamentary inquiries into the Top: Two Somali boys photographed through the razor wire which surrounds the state of the military, and charismatic Canadian camp at Belet Huen. leadership of the kind provided by Bottom: A crewman of Grizzly armoured personnel carrier observes a Somali defence minister Doug Young and encampment by the road. Three Somali children wave in the middle of the photo. General (chief of the defence staff from 2005) gradually https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol22/iss4/662 4 and : The Somalia Affair The Oxford Companion to Canadian Military History

restored public confidence, military of whom (only 6.8 percent) had of media scrutiny, public interest, prospects, and operational efficiency. graduate degrees. This too soon and political attention, was slow The CF culture, unhealthily subsumed began to be remedied, with better in coming but gradually decisive. in management, public affairs, education and leadership, public and Enlightened leadership and the defensiveness, and accountancy, political support, and the evident overall quality of the rank and file morphed back toward its warrior competence of Canadian units in the were instrumental in seeing the roots, operational competence, and field, at home, and abroad. Canadian Forces through and beyond national service. Its connections to The Somalia affair led to the pyrotechnics of scandal to the Canadian values had been far less increased scrutiny of the Canadian force that would perform with near- generically threatened than the Forces. Muckraking books and unflagging competence on missions sordid actions of the few in Somalia articles, denounced regularly by from Kosovo to Afghanistan. had appeared to indicate, but they senior officials, revealed fiddled had nevertheless been threatened. expense accounts, the evasion of The turn of the century found responsibility, the cover-up of J.L. Granatstein has received the Order of and the Pierre Berton Award, such essential bonds emotionally misdeeds, and, at times, a moral among other distinctions. He is the former reinforced and broadly respected. At climate unsuitable for the CF (or director and CEO of the Canadian War the same time, studies of the Canadian any public organization) and Museum. Forces produced for defence minister unworthy of the country it served. Dean F. Oliver is the director of research Young in 1997 had focused sharply The Arone murder and the inquiry- at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. on the ill education of CF officers, affair that followed represented, in In 2010 he was made a Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau by Queen half of whom (47 percent) had no many ways, the nadir of Canada’s Beatrix of the Netherlands. university degree and almost none modern military. Recovery, born

The crew of a Canadian Grizzly photographed while on patrol in the Somalian desert near Belet Huen. Photo by Jeff Speed, Canadian War Museum 19940035-020 Jeff by Speed, Canadian War Photo

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