05 August 2006

10 Belgian soldier castrated and mtilated-Rwanda

In 1994, ten Belgian peacekeepers were horribly mutilated alive (castrated, their Achilles tendons slashed, etc.) in Rwanda. The full extent of the barbarity wasn't disclosed for a long time for fear of reprisals

To the killed paras the posthumous medals meant beans because there was little left of their bodies to pin the medals on. The Hutus did a first class job in mutilating their bodies, first their Achilles’ tendons were cut to prevent the soldiers from running away, then they were castrated and their balls and penises shoved down their throats; finally they were killed. I know from experience that this type of mutilation is very common in black Africa, sometimes the victims’ eyes and tongues are also cut out while they are still alive, the reason behind the exercise is that if the victim is deaf and dumb, it cannot identify or accuse its killers in the hereafter.


The 10 murdered Belgian Paratroopers




Ten Belgian paratroopers murdered and mutilated: Who's to blame?
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - Lt. Thierry Lotin, leader of a 10-man Belgian patrol, shouted into the radio: ''We've been disarmed and taken I don't know where. Two of my men are being beaten. Colonel, they're going to lynch us!''
That was the last communication received from Lotin. Before long, all 10 would be dead - beaten, stabbed, hacked, shot and mutilated by Rwandan soldiers in a frenzy of hatred toward the Belgian U.N. peacekeepers.
Three years later, Sandrine Lotin, widow of the 29-year-old lieutenant, still wants to know why her husband died in that far-away African land. So do the families of the other nine men. So does much of Belgium.
''I could understand my husband dying on a mission,'' says Mrs. Lotin, who was pregnant at the time. ''But they didn't die as soldiers. They were murdered.''
A special committee of the Belgian Senate is holding hearings on the April 7, 1994, deaths the day when Rwanda erupted in an orgy of bloodletting by Hutu extremists. Within weeks, at least a half-million Rwandans were dead, most of them minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
The drama began shortly after the death of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana in a still unexplained plane crash on April 6, 1994. Lotin and his men were given orders about 2 a.m. the next day to take Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana to the radio station to make an appeal for calm.
When the 10 peacekeepers arrived at the prime minister's house, soldiers of the Hutu army opened fire with rifles and grenades. After about two hours, the prime minister ignored Lotin's advice and fled. She was caught and murdered.
A Hutu officer ordered the surrounded and outgunned Belgians to give up their weapons or be killed. Lotin's battalion commander, Lt. Col. Jo Dewez, authorized him by radio to do so.
Lotin and his men were taken to a Rwandan military base, where an officer accused Belgian troops of shooting down the president's plane. Soldiers at the base went wild with machetes, bayonets and guns. Four of the paratroopers were cut down immediately.
Lotin and the rest ran to a building, where another was trapped and killed. A Rwandan soldier tried to break into the room where the survivors barricaded themselves, but Lotin killed him with a pistol he had kept hidden and grabbed the soldier's AK-47 rifle.
The Belgians held out with those two weapons for three hours, when grenades dropped into the room through the roof ended resistance. All the bodies were stripped of valuables and mutilated.
Two weeks later, faced with a shocked and distraught nation, Belgium's government withdrew its 450-man battalion from the U.N. force in Rwanda.

Names of the 10 Belgian soldiers;

Cpl Bruno Bassine, Cpl Alain Debatty, Cpl Christophe Dupont, Cpl Stephan Lhoir, Cpl Bruno Meaux, Cpl Louis Plescia, Cpl Christophe Renwa, Cpl Marc Uyttebroeck, 1 Sgt Yannick Leroy and Lt Thierry Lotin.

3 comments:

Art Sweeney said...

Hard to understand how soldiers, who represent a cause, could do this. No honor. No mercy. Inhumane acts. Was there ever an apology to wives, families, or state, by anybody? If there was ever a war crime, this would be it. Any effort of bringing them before an international court? Sickening acts.

Anonymous said...

Didn't happen that way. Lotin and his men fought hard for their lives after Dailler ordered them to surrender their weapons and they(UN) would negotiate their release. Lotin's commander relayed the message to lotin and lotin after much argument conceeded. After ariving at the barracks it was communicated to command that Lotin and his men were holed up in a building and support was requested. Dailler ordered no support and the Belguims fought to the end. Note; A civilian observer in a observation post ignored Dalliers orders and sniped soldiers digging a hole in the roof in an attempt to help the belgiums. He was a canadian named Brian Earl in General Lewis Mackenzie's C.I.O.A. corps.

Constantine said...

Hi John. I just saw your message. I just google this post.. thanks for shedding some light to it... can you describe further how these paras were killed? is there any truth about them being castrated?

thanks!