THREE Belgian paratroopers from an elite battalion will face a court martial in Brussels this afternoon following allegations that they and their colleagues tortured and may have murdered Somali civilians, including children, during the United Nations operation in the east African country four years ago.
The government and senior military officers in Belgium have been deeply embarrassed by the recent publication of photographs in a Flemish paper showing a paratrooper apparently urinating on a dead body and a group holding a youth over a camp fire, during what now appears to have been the spectacularly misnamed UN operation Restore Hope in 1993.
Other allegations are that members of the unit forced Somali children to eat worms, salted water and vomit. A further photograph shows a trooper standing with his boot on the head of a Somali man, presumed to be dead.
Perhaps the most shocking claim of all, that a youth suspected of theft was locked in a metal container in scorching temperatures for two days until he died, is still under investigation.
The photographs and details of some incidents have been given to the authorities by a former paratrooper who was a member of the unit, part of a detachment of 1,000 Belgian troops stationed north of Kismayu in southern Somalia.
The three men are charged with threatening behaviour and physical violence and could face imprisonment if found guilty at the court martial in Brussels' Palace of Justice. More courts martial are expected in the autumn.
The accused soldiers are not the first to go on trial, nor are they the only national group alleged to have been involved in the mistreatment of civilians.
Canadian troops have also been accused of killing civilians in Somalia and torturing a youth to death; the report from an official investigation is due to be published shortly. In Italy, an investigation is also under way after photographs were published showing an Italian soldier applying electrodes to the hands and genitals of a naked man.
In an earlier trial two years ago, nine Belgian paratroopers were acquitted of human rights abuses, though one was sentenced to five years imprisonment for killing a Somali civilian in an attempt to cover up a theft. Their officer was given a suspended sentence for admitting carrying out mock executions on children.
The Belgian authorities have promised that the investigations will be fully pursued with the utmost vigour of the law, since they are aware that Belgium's military reputation is at stake, but they have tended to imply that the incidents were isolated and the result of a temporary breakdown of discipline among a small group at one camp.
Gen Jean Yves Minne, the military auditor leading the investigation, said: "We have very serious indications that things happened just as they were reported. We are talking about a series of problems with a very limited group in a limited zone."
The incidents occurred during the disastrous American led UN intervention in Somalia, which tried unsuccessfully to depose the local warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid.
They have highlighted the problems of disciplining an international force acting on behalf of the UN. Although the troops were taking part in a UN operation, they were supplied and came under the disciplinary command of their own national officers.
Operations elsewhere, including Bosnia, have also shown the difficulties of operating to command standards: French and Dutch troops have been allowed the use of prostitutes and other countries have sent poorly trained and equipped units to UN operations.
The UN has said in future operations it will insist troops deployed on its behalf must observe the Geneva Convention, which they have not automatically been required to do before.