The US has recruited and used various local militias in Afghanistan in their fight against the Taliban. A practice that seems to gouge at us as much as the Taliban. These unholy alliances are nothing new. Neither is the practice of abusing young boys by Afghan militia leaders, known as bacha bazi. Bacha Bazi, or pedophile, in Persian, refers to the abuse of young boys which in certain cultures was acceptable. It was banned by the Taliban until they lost control of the region on 2001. In recent years, the practice has resurfaced and has spilled over onto US military bases. When soldiers, who could hear the screams of children coming from nearby bunks on base, informed their superiors, they were told to ignore it and to respect the local culture.
Boys often dressed in makeup for the practice of bachi bazi
The New York Times was the first media outlet to expose these crimes being perpetrated on US military bases. According to the Times, Captain Dan Quinn was stripped of his command after he beat an Afghan militia leader who kept a young boy chained to his bed as a sex slave. Quinn stated, “The reason we were here is because we heard the terrible things the Taliban were doing to people, how they were taking away human rights…. but we were putting people into power who would do things that were worse than the Taliban did.” Quinn and other soldiers were told by their commanders to ignore the crimes of the newly recruited allies of the US, even though they were technically occurring on US soil.
The official response came from the US Spokesman for Afghan operations, Col. Brian Tribus. Tribus’ statement was chilling and overtly insensitive. “Generally, allegations of child sexual abuse by Afghan military or police personnel would be a matter of domestic Afghan criminal law. There would be no express requirement that U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan report it.” He justified this by stating that rape, as a weapon of war, would be an exception to the rule. Almost immediately, Gen. John F. Campbell, issued a statement rebutting the comments by Trubus. “I personally have served multiple tours of duty in Afghanistan and am absolutely confident that no such theater policy has ever existed here, and certainly, no such policy has existed throughout my tenure as commander,” stated Campbell.
While it is apparent that the US Military cannot publicly support the rape of children by their allies, it would seem that unofficial policy dictate that reports of abuse go intentionally unheard. In October 2015, the Pentagon announced it was launching a probe into any cover-up that might have occurred regarding these allegations. The Afghan Ministry of the Interior stepped into the conversation denying allegations that they failed to investigate reports of militia’s abuse of young boys proclaiming that bachi bazi is a heinous and indecent act.” The Afghan government does however acknowledge that practice has become more widespread in the more rural areas of the country.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/dancingboys/
Shocking story, my respect goes to Capt. DAN QUINN for doing the right thing.
How many peoples lives are ruined by these sexual preditory scum who seem to just keep getting away with it.
This, this is an example of how we’ve really fucked up in not attacking the right people, hopefully charges against Quinn are dropped, and the practice ends.
Respect for Capt. Dan Quinn, There is not a bigger role of US as well as UN for such kind of crimes which they called cultural trend. Afghan needs their Societal Values first to strengthen their Land in spite of power show by fool US power bugs. Afghan needs strong relations with neighbor countries who has given helping hand in bad times of afghan history.