THE Canadian Gen John de Chastelain, who was a member of the International Body on Decommissioning, is one of three men alleged to have approved a cover up of details surrounding the killings of Somalis by Canadian peacekeeping troops in 1993.
The allegations have been made by a Canadian defence forces colonel facing charges of breaching military laws.
Gen de Chastelain's name surfaced last month during an inquiry into the elite Canadian Airborne Regiment's scandal plagued mission to Somalia, where civilians died at the hands of Canadian soldiers who were part of a UN peacekeeping force.
Col Geoff Haswell, a former director of public affairs at National Defence headquarters in Ottawa, claims that Gen de Chastelain, his successor, Gen Jean Boyle and Mr Bob Fowler, a former deputy minister, approved a plan to alter documents about the mission that had been requested by a Canadian journalist investigating the killings. The plan called for the documents to be renamed and then destroyed after three days.
Military police have charged Mr Haswell with seven counts of breaching military laws, including altering documents and making false statements.
Col Haswell told the Globe and Mail newspaper that the Defence Department is trying to make him a scapegoat. Junior officers have told the inquiry's investigators that Mr Haswell ordered them to shred some of the original documents to try and cover his tracks.
The plan was thwarted when one officer refused the order and informed the journalist his documents had been tampered with. The scandal over the missing documents has left a cloud over Canada's armed forces and is threatening to engulf the higher echelons of the military.
Gen de Chastelain was the Canadian military's chief of the defence staff during the peacekeeping trip to Somalia. Contacted by The Irish Times at his home in Ottawa yesterday, he said he had not commented on the Somali inquiry and would not comment until it was finished.
He declined to discuss the allegations levelled at him but said that, so far, he had not been asked to appear before the inquiry to answer them.
Mr Fowler, who is now Canada's UN ambassador, has said it is possible he was briefed on a plan to not keep documents indefinitely.
Gen Boyle has acknowledged there are gaps in the documentation sent to the inquiry, but denies involvement in a cover up. But memos addressed to him that were discovered in April indicate that he had been informed of the plan.
At the time, Gen Boyle was a major general who oversaw the department's public affairs division.
A judge presiding over the inquiry has said that several documents are missing, including the daily logs compiled by the Air borne Regiment in February and March 1993, the same time Canadian paratroopers were implicated in the deaths of Somali civilians.
In a move designed to clear his name, Gen Boyle ordered all defence department employees to spend a day searching their files for the missing documents. None has been recovered and military analysts and the media ridiculed the move as a public relations stunt.
Gen Boyle has said he wants to testify before the Somalia inquiry, scheduled to resume hearings this month. A decision has not been made on whether Gen de Chastelain or Mr Fowler will be asked to testify.
A Canadian soldier is serving a five year prison sentence for the torture and killing of a 16 year old Somali youth, who was beaten to death after he wandered on to the Canadian compound in 1993. Several soldiers posed for pictures with the blindfolded and bloodied youth hours before he was found dead in the compound.
In one of the pictures, a soldier is jamming a baton between the youth's swollen lips and in another, he is holding a gun to the youth's head while his hands and feet are bound.
Members of the Airborne Regiment were also involved in the death of another Somali man, who was killed in an execution style shooting after soldiers found him inside their compound.
After the killings, it was learned that many of the soldiers belonged to white supremacist groups and one had told friends that he was going to the African country to shoot a nigger.
The killings and the unprofessional behaviour of the soldiers have badly tarnished Canada's reputation as one of the world's most respected peacekeeping nations.