In 2015, The New York Times reported that U.S. soldiers were instructed by their commanders to ignore child sexual abuse being carried out by the Afghan National Security Forces. American soldiers were instructed not to intervene—in some cases, not even when their Afghan allies have abused boys on military bases, according to interviews and court records. But the U.S. soldiers were troubled that instead of weeding out pedophiles, the U.S. military was arming them against the Taliban and placing them as the police commanders of villages—and doing little when they began abusing children.[1]
According to a report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, the DOD had received 5,753 vetting requests of Afghan security forces, some of which related to sexual abuse. The DOD was investigating 75 reports of gross human rights violations, including 7 involving child sexual assault.[2] According to The New York Times, discussing that report, American law required military aid to be cut off to the offending unit, but that never happened. U.S. Special Operations Forces officer, Capt. Dan Quinn, was relieved of his command in Afghanistan after fighting an Afghan militia commander who had been responsible for keeping a boy as a sex slave.[3]
References
- ↑ The Editorial Board. "Ignoring Sexual Abuse in Afghanistan", The New York Times, 2015-09-21. (en-US)
- ↑ Child Sexual Assault in Afghanistan:Implementation of the Leahy Laws and Reports of Assault by Afghan Security Forces (June 2017).
- ↑ Nordland, Rod. "Afghan Pedophiles Get Free Pass From U.S. Military, Report Says", January 23, 2018.