U.S. Soldiers In Afghanistan Were Told To Ignore Boys Being Sexually Abused By Afghan Allies

Dan Quinn was relieved of his Special Forces command after a fight with a U.S.-backed militia leader who had a boy as a sex slave chained to his bed. Credit Kirsten Luce for The New York Times

New York Times: U.S. Soldiers Told to Ignore Afghan Allies’ Abuse of Boys

KABUL, Afghanistan — In his last phone call home, Lance Cpl. Gregory Buckley Jr. told his father what was troubling him: From his bunk in southern Afghanistan, he could hear Afghan police officers sexually abusing boys they had brought to the base.

“At night we can hear them screaming, but we’re not allowed to do anything about it,” the Marine’s father, Gregory Buckley Sr., recalled his son telling him before he was shot to death at the base in 2012. He urged his son to tell his superiors. “My son said that his officers told him to look the other way because it’s their culture.”

Rampant sexual abuse of children has long been a problem in Afghanistan, particularly among armed commanders who dominate much of the rural landscape and can bully the population. The practice is called bacha bazi, literally “boy play,” and American soldiers and Marines have been 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.

WNU Editor: American soldiers were not the only ones who were told to ignore this behaviour. I was told by a friend who served in the Canadian Army that soldiers were given the same orders (this was about 5 or 6 years ago) ... and someone who served in the British Army in Helmand province told me the same thing only last year.