Thursday, June 21, 2007

RMF: ‘revolt’ in Polish units in Afghanistan

Only a week after achieving fighting efficiency in Afghanistan, six Polish soldiers will be sent back to the country, radio RMF informs.

Two soldiers refused to obey orders and tried to persuade others to follow. Officially, the remaining four return on their own request.

According to RMF FM, the two soldiers wouldn’t leave the base and encouraged others to refuse taking part in patrols. The cause they gave was weak armour of military vehicles Humvee, worse than the one used on US forces vehicles.

Reportedly, this ‘revolt’ took place in Sharana base in eastern Afghanistan.

Col. Edward Jaroszczuk confirms that by order of the contingent’s commander the military police is involved in the case of soldiers’ insubordination.

“The MP is seeing to it. I don’t know how many soldiers [were involved]. I only know that the commander has submitted a relevant document to the MP’s department in Afghanistan,” he said.

Defence Ministry spokesman Jarosław Rybak confirmed that the Minister decided to send the soldiers back to Poland; even those who yielded to persuasions and later said that this was only a moment of weakness.

For insubordination, failing to obey an order, incitement to disobedience one can be facing even up to three years of imprisonment.
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