Sexual abuse, other crimes in Dutch army

This 2011 Dutch Ministry of ~~War~~ …, sorry, Defence video says about itself (translated):

With the completion of the 25-kilometer-long final march, 17-year-old Savannah Zimmerman can now call herself the youngest female red beret ever. A total of 199 soldiers began the 6-month training for the airmobile military. Of these, 121 passed the gate of the Orange Barracks in Schaarsbergen, home of the 11 Airmobile Brigade.

This propaganda video does not say what may happen to 17-year-old girls or 17-year-old boys in the Schaarsbergen barracks.

Translated from Dutch NOS radio:

‘Misconduct in Schaarsbergen more extensive than expected’

Today, 4:45

The abuses at the Orange barracks in Schaarsbergen are much bigger than previously assumed. The Volkskrant reports this on the basis of a confidential report from the Ministry of Defense from 2015, which the newspaper has received.

The report states that soldiers used alcohol and drugs on a large scale. In addition, they are said to have taken outside women to the barracks, who also continued to sleep there. In some cases, according to the Volkskrant, these were prostitutes. Furthermore, the report states that substantial amounts of Defense Department material were destroyed and stolen. …

According to the trade union for civilian and military defense personnel, there are still abuses in the barracks in Schaarsbergen. Chairman Jean Debie of the union calls conditions there poignant. People are still being humiliated and discriminated against there, Debie said in the NOS Radio 1 news. Debie received reports of abuse, assaults and humiliations that took place this year and last year.

Thus the ‘beating helmet’ is still used. In some cases, someone who has made a mistake must put such a helmet on. They are then beaten on their heads. …

Some members of the airmobile brigade look down on other military personnel. …

He also reported an incident at the barracks of the airmobile brigade in Assen. A woman is said to have been abused there by soldiers using XTC.

Hazing

At the beginning of last month, the Volkskrant announced that three soldiers had left their unit in Schaarsbergen in 2014, after they had been victims of, among other things, sexual assault, rape and extortion. Some of the abuses are said to have happened in the context of hazing.

Debie in the Volkskrant interview tells, eg, about a soldier into whose anus an item was pushed.

The airmobile brigade is especially for neocolonial wars overseas, like in Mali in Africa. If there is sexual and other abuse of their own soldiers, and contempt for non-airmobile brigade soldiers, then one can imagine how, eg, African civilians in a neocolonial war context are treated.

Update, 11 September 2018: here.