Army Plans Court-Martial Of Officer Who Was In Haiti

An officer who says he disobeyed orders to investigate possible human rights abuses in Haiti will be court-martialed, the Army said Thursday.

Maj. Gen. David C. Meade, commander of the 10th Mountain Division that spearheaded last year’s entry into Haiti, agreed with an investigator’s recommendation to court-martial Capt. Lawrence Rockwood. No date was set.

Rockwood, 36, is charged with failing to report for duty, being disrespectful of a superior officer, and disobeying orders on Sept. 30, 1994, when he left his post to investigate conditions at a Port-auPrince prison.

His oath of office, which puts the orders of the president paramount, overrode the orders of his immediate superiors, Rockwood said.

“The commander in chief, Bill Clinton, told us to intervene when human rights were threatened,” Rockwood said. “The general staff was criminally negligent in allowing the human rights abuses to go uninvestigated.”

Rockwood said he learned about potential abuses through reports he reviewed in his role as a counter-intelligence officer, then tried to coordinate a proper inspection of the prison, but met “gross indifference” on the part of his superiors.

Rockwood faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted on all counts.