A BELGIAN military prosecutor yesterday requested one month prison sentences and fines of £230 for two paratroopers who were photographed torturing a Somali boy while serving as United Nations peacekeepers in the country in 1993.
The demand, which seems bound to spark an international outcry, compares with a maximum one year prison sentence the prosecutor could have sought after the two men had pleaded guilty on charges of assault and battery before a military court.
The court, presided over by four senior officers and one civilian magistrate, will announce its definitive ruling on June 30th.
The actions of the two men, Privates Claude Baert and Kurt Coelus, have provoked revulsion, around the world since the publication in April of photographs of them swinging a young Somali over an open fire. Neither of them denied the incident took place, but claimed they had been only playing.
The case of another member of the same battalion, Sgt Dirk Nassel, was adjourned until September. Sgt Nassel is charged with force feeding another Somali with salt water, then making him eat his own vomit.
A fourth member of the 3rd battalion of the Parachute Regiment, based at Tielen in Flanders, is due to go on trial in September. Sgt Maj Rudy Derkinderen is suspected of having murdered a Somali, on whose corpse he was photographed urinating.
The circumstances surrounding the death of another child, at the paratroopers' base near Kismayo in southern Somalia are also under investigation.
According to the testimony of two former paratroopers, the boy, who had been caught trying to steal food, died after being locked in a metal container for 48 hours.
The Belgian Defence Minister Mr Jean Pol Poncelet, has promised that any of the paratroopers found guilty of criminal acts in Somalia will be dishonourably discharged.
Mr Baert has already left the military altogether, but Private Coelus, who is now in the navy, and Sgt Nassel, who has remained at Tielen, are still in the services.
Mr Poncelet has also ordered an inquiry to establish whether the incidents were part of a broader pattern of abuse of the local population. If so, he has promised to disband the 3rd Battalion.
The revelations of gross misconduct by Belgian paratroopers in Somalia have been mirrored in Italy and Canada. A list of horrific claims of abuse by Italian soldiers lengthened at the weekend when Mr Abdi Hassan Addow, a former interpreter for the Italian contingent in Somalia, alleged that Col Franco Carlini had raped and murdered a 13 year old boy at the force's headquarters. Mr Hassan Addow said the Italian military contingent fired him immediately afterwards.
Yesterday the interpreter, who lives in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, said he feared for his life as a result of his revelation. He said he had now taken refuge in the Ismail Jumale Human Rights Centre north of the city.
A parliamentary commission has been established to probe the Italian allegations. A judicial investigation has started.
A group of Canadian soldiers was sentenced in 1995 to prison terms of up to five years after being found guilty of torture leading to the death of three Somalis.