By John Bell
The Canadian military is trying to cover-up its latest scandal: the covert destruction of part of the medical records of hundreds of soldiers who served in Croatia in 1994.
The diversionary tactics and misinformation are right out of the military textbook.
But the facts remain.
Five years ago as many as 1,000 Canadian peacekeepers in Croatia were exposed to earth contaminated with toxic PCBs and bauxite ore.
The medical officer on duty, Dr. Eric Smith, noted the contamination and asked for a scientific team to test the area and determine to health dangers. The request was turned down.
Dr. Smith wrote a strongly worded memo, to be attached to the medical records of each of the soldiers. His superior officers objected to the memo because it was "alarmist."
Under pressure, Dr. Smith drafted a milder memo to be included in the medical files.
Sometime in 1995, orders came from unidentified sources to remove the memos from the medical records and shred them.
The removal and destruction of documents from records is a criminal offence.
Then those who served in Croatia began developing chronic illness.
In particular, former warrant officer Matthew Stopford -- who has lost sight in one eye and developed a severe limp due to mysterious joint inflammation since his return from duty -- has been pressing for access to his medical records.
More than a year ago it was discovered that the memos had disappeared. Complaints were lodged with military brass and the Ministry of Defence.
After meeting inaction and doubletalk, Stopford went public with the story.
That's when the military, under General Maurice Baril, and government, under Defence Minister Art Eggleton, went into full cover-up mode.
First it appointed a military board of inquiry to be headed by Col. Howard Marsh.
Then it came out that Marsh was one of the senior officers who had been informed about the disappearance of the memos almost a year and a half ago. Marsh was to investigate his own misconduct.
After two weeks of attacks in the press, Marsh resigned from the inquiry.
In a press conference announcing Marsh's resignation, Gen. Baril as much as admitted he had been caught trying to pull a fast one.
"You have kept us very honest on this one," he said.
Col. Joe Sharpe, new head of the internal inquiry, doesn't give much confidence that justice will be done.
"The board's job is not necessarily to identify wrongdoers and make sure they are punished," said Sharpe. "It's to get tot the root of the problem and understand what the situation is."
That as much as confirms that the exercise is designed to waste time until the issue falls out of public view.
Meanwhile, the military attempted to muddy the issue in other ways.
First, they tried to discredit Dr. Smith. He was court-martialed on trumped up charges and is now out of the military.
Smith was probably framed, but even if he wasn't, his conduct subsequent to the Croatia mission has nothing to do with the illegal removal of documents and cover-up.
Then, incredibly, the military and RCMP claimed Stopford's illnesses were the result of his being slowly poisoned by the soldiers under his command.
What absurd nonsense. About 60 of Stopford's fellow soldiers have also revealed symptoms like severe skin rashes, arthritis-like ailments, chronic fatigue and even blindness.
The Croatia soldiers were poisoned all right. They were poisoned by the toxic environment they were put in by their own government.
The military and government must admit their moral and financial obligation to take care of the soldiers whose lives they toyed with.
We've seen the military kill the Somalia inquiry when it threatened to expose the guilt of senior officers and government officials.
And we've seen the pathetic sham inquiry they are trying to set up this time.
We have to support the demand for a real inquiry with the power to follow the trail of guilt right to the top if necessary.