Canada Officers Tried Cover-Up of Somalia Slaying, Panel Says

TORONTO — A commission investigating Canada’s worst military scandal concluded Wednesday that senior officers had lied and attempted to cover up the killing of a Somali civilian in 1993.

The commission’s scathing final report, titled “Dishonored Legacy,” asserted that poor leadership was rampant in the officer corps. It said the army’s 1992-93 mission to Somalia went awry from the start.

The three-member commission, headed by a federal judge, conducted 18 months of hearings on allegations of abuses involving Canadian soldiers who served in the multinational mission in Somalia.

The government, contending that the inquiry had become too long and costly, ordered hearings halted at the end of March. That prevented the commission from obtaining testimony about the worst incident--the March 16, 1993, torture-slaying of Somali teenager Shidane Arone by Canadian soldiers photographed gloating beside his bloody body.

The commission was able to hear detailed testimony about the fatal shooting of a Somali intruder at a Canadian base on March 4, 1993. Though a military surgeon contended from the outset that the shooting was a homicide, his superiors at the base conducted their own investigation rather than summoning military police, the panel said.

Two enlisted men were jailed for their roles in Arone’s killing, and several officers were reprimanded for neglect of duty.

The report was assailed as “excessively negative” by Defense Minister Art Eggleton. “It’s a blanket condemnation of our military,” he said.