A Canadian soldier has been charged with second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of an unarmed Taliban suspect, raising questions as to how and why the incident remained secret for 21/2 months.
Captain Robert Semrau of Pembroke, Ont. — who was tasked with training members of Afghanistan's army — was charged with "shooting, with intent to kill, an unarmed male," according to the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service. The move came just six days into the military's probe.
The incident occurred during a period of fierce fighting in Helmand province's largest city, Lashkar Gah, between the Afghan National Army and Taliban fighters.
In an interview conducted by the U.S. military on Oct. 18 — one day before the alleged shooting — Capt. Semrau spoke about his excitement for the mission, saying he "can't wait" for the looming operation.
He also predicted the mission would involve killing members of the Taliban.
"I imagine we'll do some aggressive patrolling, some defensive work and try and root out the Taliban and kill and capture them," he said in the interview.
Observers were quick to question why the Oct. 19 incident is only surfacing now and why the military is refusing to release any details.
The seriousness of the charge and the secrecy surrounding what happened are drawing comparisons to the 1993 Somalia affair, when military officials attempted to cover up details of a deadly beating of a Somali teen.
Capt. Semrau was charged a day after an NIS commander told reporters in Kandahar that it was probing allegations of "inappropriate conduct" in connection with the death of an alleged Taliban insurgent in Helmand province last year.
The NIS said it charged the officer under the National Defence Act after analyzing evidence and interviewing witnesses.
The charge represents the most serious allegation of criminal wrongdoing by a Canadian soldier since Somalia, when Master Corporal Clayton Matchee beat a Somali teenager to death while Private Elvin Kyle Brown took graphic photos. The images shocked Canadians and tarnished the force's reputation for years.
Those events led to the creation of the NIS, an independent military police unit, which charged Capt. Semrau in Afghanistan.
Capt. Semrau is now in military custody and will be returned to Canada for a hearing before a military judge to determine whether he is to remain in custody, the NIS statement said.
The Canadian mentoring team he was a part of was providing guidance to the Afghan army during fierce fighting in Helmand province.
The joint unit was summoned hastily to Helmand in mid-October as insurgents threatened the provincial capital. It was an unusual request for extra troops, and caught the Canadian mentoring team by surprise.
"Lashkar Gah came up pretty quick; we weren't tracking on it at all," Major Steve Nolan, commander of the Canadian advisers serving with an Afghan kandak, or company, said during an interview in early December. "They called us at 6 o'clock one night and said by 6 o'clock tomorrow morning you need to be in Lashkar Gah."
The small team of Canadian mentors scrambled to prepare about 250 Afghan troops for about two weeks of fighting, something the unit had not previously experienced.
The sheer scale of the fighting meant the battlefield grew chaotic, the Canadian commander said; at one point later in the operation the pro-government forces were accidentally shooting at each other.
"On that day there were four incidents of friendly fire that I could see well enough to testify in court about them," Major Nolan said, "two of which actually had rounds coming down on me or my guys."
On Friday, retired Colonel Michel Drapeau said he thought the military had learned from Somalia that it is better to be transparent with bad news. But he said the 21/2 months of silence raises troublesome questions.
"If [the soldiers on the mission] can hide this kind of incident from [authorities] then it shows a breakdown in discipline, breakdown in command-and-control, breakdown in communications," he said. "If it's not the case, then we've got a bigger issue: We've got a cover-up there. That they did find out, but they waited until the last possible moment, over the holiday, to disclose as little as they could to the Canadian public. Either way, I don't like the smell of it."
