Army Captain Faces Court-Martial For His Solo Investigation In Haiti Unable To Convince Superiors To Probe Prison Abuses, Soldier Accused Of Going Out On His Own

A U.S. Army counterintelligence officer is facing court-martial for leaving his post in Haiti and making a solo attempt to investigate reports of tortures and executions in a Port-au-Prince prison.

Capt. Lawrence P. Rockwood, 36, said he tried to persuade superiors to act on reports of human rights violations at the National Penitentiary that allegedly continued after U.S. troops arrived in Haiti last fall, but they believed his concern was exaggerated.

An Army statement said Rockwood is accused of dereliction of duty and conduct unbecoming an officer, among other charges. Rockwood said he underwent two psychiatric evaluations by military doctors after the incident, and neither found any evidence of mental illness.

The son of a career army officer who helped liberate a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia at the end of World War II, Rockwood said he has been interested in human rights since he was a child.

Rockwood especially wanted U.S. authorities to inspect Haiti’s prisons, run by the often brutal local military, and certain houses in Port-au-Prince allegedly used as torture chambers.

But his commanders told him that their orders were to search for arms caches, patrol and protect their own troops, he said, and that they had no authority to enter prisons or stop “Haitian-on-Haitian violence” unless it was committed in the presence of U.S. troops. They also suggested his information was unreliable. Rockwood said he repeatedly heard an old maxim about Haiti: “Believe nothing of what you hear and 50 percent of what you see.”

Rockwood said he filed an eightpage complaint with his command’s inspector general on Sept. 30, charging that U.S. military commanders in Haiti were thwarting the wishes of their commander in chief, President Clinton, by making only scant efforts to stop Haitian state brutality. Clinton, he argued, had listed “stopping brutal atrocities” as the first reason for sending U.S. troops to Haiti.

A few hours later, Rockwood slipped away from his unit in Port-auPrince and headed for the National Penitentiary dressed in full combat gear and armed with an M-16 assault rifle. By failing to appear for duty that evening, and launching his solo mission to inspect the penitentiary, Rockwood knew he was violating several direct orders.

“It would mean the end of a 15-year military career,” he said, “and a possible court-martial.

“I felt the action justified based (on) this being an extraordinary situation in which any other decision on my part would have led to … imminent and ongoing human rights violations, to include murder,” he said later in a letter to Maj. Gen. David C. Meade, commander of U.S. forces in Haiti.

A statement issued last week by the 10th Mountain Division in Fort Drum, N.Y., described Rockwood’s conduct without mentioning his human rights concerns but noting that after the incident, he “was sent to the hospital for a mental health exam.”

The charges against Rockwood include failing to be at his appointed place of duty, leaving his appointed place of duty, dereliction of duty, disrespect to and disobedience of a superior officer, and conduct unbecoming an officer.

Military authorities will hold a preliminary hearing at Fort Drum on Feb. 8 to decide whether Rockwood should be brought to trial. Rockwood’s superiors said they could not comment because the case is pending.

Born in Trenton, N.J., Rockwood holds a master’s degree in history from the University of Florida.

He served for more than five years with U.S. troops in Germany and for six months in Honduras. He is divorced and has a 6-year-old daughter.