U.S. Sergeant Raped in Afghanistan Found Nowhere to Go

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-23/u-s-sergeant-raped-in-afghanistan-found-nowhere-to-go.html

by David Lerman

As the only woman in her bomb-disposal unit in Afghanistan, Army Sergeant Rebekah Havrilla said she had learned to endure sexual harassment from her team leader and contempt from the captain who commanded the unit. So when another service member raped her, she said, reporting the crime to her commanding officer was unthinkable. “There was no way I was going to go to my commander,” Havrilla, who served in Afghanistan from 2006 to 2007, said in an interview. “He made it clear he didn’t like women.”

The reluctance of most victims to report crimes of sexual assault in the U.S. military goes to the heart of the uproar over such attacks, which President Barack Obama denounced last week as “shameful and disgraceful.” Now a growing number of lawmakers, led by women in the House of Representatives and Senate, are demanding a change that military leaders have long considered anathema: letting independent military prosecutors, instead of commanding officers, pursue sexual assaults and other major crimes.

“Our system is broken,” said Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat and chief sponsor of a measure to wrest such cases away from military supervisors. “This is the only way we can provide the unbiased justice that our victims need.”

The issue reached a boiling point this month after three officers assigned to programs to prevent sexual abuse were removed from their posts after allegations of wrongdoing.

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