Monday, May 23, 2016

Military training of "bad guys"?

The Independent (UK) reports:
Britain is providing military training and support to the majority of the countries named on its own human rights abusers watchlist,The Independent can reveal.
The Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) designated 30 nations as “human rights priority” countries last year, warning of their conduct on a range of issues from internal repression to the use of sexual violence in armed conflict.
It would be interesting to know if the training includes a program on the Rule of Law in military operations.  The Judge Advocate General of the Army School (TJAGSA) holds many publications on the Rule of Law in military operations.  See also the Naval Postgraduate School library.

Some years ago, the Naval Justice School began such a training program for foreign military leaders.  It became known as Defense Institute of International Legal Studies (DIILS), and was headed by an old friend CAPT Guy Abbate.  I see now that it is headed by an Army officer and the organization falls under the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.  I see that there is a program within the Naval Small Craft Instruction and Technical Training School taught by Navy JAs. 

I had the experience in 1996 of traveling to Mali on one such mission.  Now off the bucket list is travel to the fabled "city" of Timbuktu.

The program then was to have a cadre come to NJS for liaison and basic familiarization, and then travel to the particular country for a three to four day seminar.  The seminar was attended by not just military lawyers but officers and civilians.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments are subject to moderation and must be submitted under your real name. Anonymous comments will not be posted (even though the form seems to permit them).