U.N. Peacekeepers Accused Of Atrocities

SOLDIERS from 21 countries went to Somalia as saviors to the ravaged nation. But now allegations of torture, rape and murder of Somalis by peacekeepers are accumulating.

BRUSSELS, Belgium - In "Operation Restore Hope," U.N. peacekeepers from 21 countries went to Somalia to protect and feed a population suffering in the anarchy of civil war.

The 1993-1995 mission staved off mass starvation in Somalia, an accomplishment overshadowed today by allegations that some peacekeepers brutalized the civilians they were there to help.

From Canada to Belgium to Italy, witness accounts and peacekeepers' own souvenir snapshots are laying bare alleged wrongdoing by foreign troops in Somalia, including the torture, rape and murder of Somalis.

Addressing the growing scandal Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan declared in a statement in New York: "I am appalled and outraged by these actions, which are unacceptable and counter to everything peacekeeping stands for."

On the same day as Annan spoke out, trial opened in Belgium for two members of an elite paratroop unit accused of torturing a Somali boy by dangling him over an open fire.

It was a playful game meant to discourage the child from stealing, the lawyer for paratroopers Claude Baert and Kurt Coelus insisted. Prosecutors asked for a one-month jail term for both men.

Other cases of alleged Belgian atrocities expected to come to trial in the coming months include:

-- A paratrooper force-fed pork and saltwater to a Muslim Somali child until the boy vomited - again, allegedly to discourage stealing.

-- Soldiers forced another boy accused of stealing into a closed container, where he languished in scorching heat without water for two days. He died.

-- A Belgian soldier urinating in the face of a Somali, who in a photograph of the incident appears either injured or dead.

The allegations aren't only against Belgian peacekeepers. Last weekend, two Italian generals resigned in the face of evidence that their soldiers tortured Somali villagers. The resignations came a day after an Italian magazine published photos that it said showed an Italian soldier raping a Somali woman.

In Canada, the army has disbanded an entire regiment over allegations of abuse, including the torture-slaying of a teenager and the fatal shootings of three other Somalis.

The Somalia operation turned sour in mid-1993 after 25 Pakistani peacekeepers were murdered, and the United Nations decided to hunt down the killers. Peacekeepers had been frustrated by a U.N. mandate that initially forbade the use of force except in self-defense.

On their own, some soldiers exacted revenge. The score-settling was made easier by the fact that peacekeepers often were in remote areas, away from most scrutiny.