A duty to disobey.

New York City 

The first time Larry Rockwood thought about a soldier's duty under international law was when he visited Dachau with his father as a young boy. He remembers his father, a career Air Force officer, explaining that the Nazis were successful because ordinary people didn't stand up for things they believed in.

Thirty years later, that lesson is at the front of Rockwood's mind. Now an Army intelligence officer, he is facing disciplinary action because he chose to report human-rights violations while serving with the U.S. expeditionary forces in Haiti last September.

Rockwood faced a court-martial in May at Fort Drum in upstate New York on five charges based on alleged disobedience for exposing abuses against Haitian prisoners under nominal U.S. control. The thirty-six-year-old captain from Gainesville, Florida, could be imprisoned for up to ten years, stripped of all benefits, and dishonorably dismissed, despite a spotless fifteen-year military record. His civilian lawyer, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, argues that Rockwood had a duty under international law to investigate and expose prison Conditions in Haiti.

Rockwood was enthusiastic when he learned last summer that his unit would lead the multinational force in Haiti. "When President Clinton announced that the first priority of our mission was to `stop brutal atrocities,' I felt proud to be part of the team," he says. Since one of his duties was to take an inventory of prison facilities, Rockwood requested classified data on Haitian prison conditions. His boss, who later became one of his accusers, endorsed this request.

After Rockwood arrived in Port au Prince, his superiors made it clear that their chief concern was "force protection" - keeping American troops safe from harm. Rockwood was deeply disturbed by what he saw as a policy of ignoring atrocities against Haitians, both in the streets and in prisons. He made several efforts to persuade his command to change its policies despite repeated rebuffs.

When he asked the Civil-Military Operations Center for current information on Haiti's prisons, he was told that nothing was being collected since the Joint Task Force had decided that it lacked jurisdiction.

Despairing that the command would ever take action to protect Haitian prisoners, Rockwood filed a formal complaint with his inspector general, charging that his command was "subverting" the President, and warning his commanders that they risked sanctions under international law for their inaction. Finally, he decided that he had to do something to protect prisoners, even if it meant acting alone. He traveled into downtown Port au Prince, walked into the central prison, and announced he was there to conduct an inspection.

"They let me see about 100 prisoners who were in pretty good shape," he says. "Then I spotted about twenty-five prisoners who were jammed into a so-called infirmary. Nearly all were emaciated, with seven or eight lying on the stone floor."

An American officer arrived at the prison and ordered Rockwood to desist. When the young captain returned to his base, he was immediately evaluated by an Army psychiatrist, who found him sane. The next day, he was flown back to Fort Drum and stripped of his security clearance. The command then placed him under a gag order.

The day after Rockwood's inspection, an Army military police unit was sent to the central prison. It reported the horrific conditions that Rockwood had feared. Brigadier General James Hill, who took charge after Rockwood was gone, intervened at the prison and initiated a number of reforms.

For the Army, Rockwood's case is a simple matter of disobedience. But for Captain Rockwood and his supporters, it raises the question of a soldier's duty under international law.

Larry Rockwood is fond of quoting the Army judge who sentenced Lieutenant William Calley for his part in the My Lai massacre: A soldier is a reasoning agent, obliged to respond, not as a machine, but as a person."

For more information, contact: Citizen Soldier, 175 Fifth Avenue, #808, New York, NY 10010, [phone]. To urge leniency for Larry Rockwood, write: Major General David C. Meade, HQ, Tenth Mountain Division (Light), Fort Drum, NY 13602.

(Todd Ensign is the director of Citizen Soldier, which has helped with Rockwood's case.)