Army Units to Get Human-Rights Training Before Peacekeeping Missions.

• Author: Kennedy, Harold
• Position: Brief Article

The general in charge of all Army combat troops based in the United States has ordered that every unit under his command receive special training designed to prevent human rights abuses, before deployment overseas, on peacekeeping operations.

Gen. John W. Hendrix--commanding general of U.S. Forces Command (FORSCOM), headquartered at Fort McPherson, Ga.--issued the order in November, after a review of the state of discipline within elements of the elite 82nd Airborne Division while deployed in Kosovo.

The 82nd was one of the first units deployed directly from the United States to Kosovo. In August, a member of that division, Staff Sgt. Frank J. Ronghi, was sentenced to life in prison by a military court for the rape and murder of an 11-year-old Kosovar Albanian girl.

An Army investigation into the crime found misconduct by several soldiers within Ronghi's battalion, including intimidating, beating and otherwise abusing Albanians under their control. Four officers and five enlisted men were punished.

Army Chief of Staff Eric K. Shinseki directed Hendrix to conduct a review of the case and "rake corrective action" to put a stop to such behavior. In his review, Hendrix concluded that the misconduct was a "direct result of failures in leadership" within Ronghi's company--and particularly within his platoon.

Both commissioned and noncommissioned officers, beginning with the company commander, "participated in misconduct themselves and condoned the misconduct of their soldiers," Hendrix reported. "These leaders clearly failed to set the proper moral and ethical tone for their unit."

Although "appropriate disciplinary actions have been taken against all responsible leaders and soldiers," Hendrix said, several have "received favorable assignments or selections for schooling or promotion." He recommended that these favorable actions be reviewed.

Several factors contributed to the failure of leadership, Hendrix said. Most prominent among them, he said, were a late notification that the unit was to deploy to Kosovo and a lack of clear guidance specifying the training required before deployment.

The unit had 26 training days from receipt of orders to deployment, he noted, and the training guidance did not require a mission-rehearsal exercise (MRE). Such exercises try to duplicate the kinds of conditions that troops are likely to encounter. In peacekeeping missions, this might include...