[ALBSA-Info] U.S. soldier on trial for shooting Kosovo boy

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

U.S. soldier on trial for shooting Kosovo boy

By Jan Dahinten

  
GIESSEN, Germany, March 8 (Reuters) - Lawyers for an American soldier accused 
of accidentally shooting dead an Albanian boy in Kosovo told his court 
martial on Thursday that they would accuse his superiors of negligence. 

Private First Class Nicholas E. Young, who pleaded not guilty to one charge 
of negligent homicide and two of dereliction of duty in a pre-trial hearing, 
faces up to three and a half years in jail if convicted. 

Young, from Sacramento, California, is accused of firing his machine gun 
while on peacekeeping duties in the Yugoslav province last July 10, fatally 
wounding six-year-old Gentrit Rexhepi. The prosecution said Young let 
children play with his weapon and pulled the trigger to see if the safety 
catch was on. 

A member of Young's defence team, Major Mark Johnson, told the court the 
incident had been "an accident waiting to happen." 

On the first day of the trial at a U.S. base at Giessen, north of Frankfurt, 
defence counsel Tom Fleener said Young, who was 19 at the time, suffered from 
a severe learning disability and that he would prove negligence among the 
upper ranks. 

"A lot of people have been negligent in this case," Johnson said. Most of 
Young's colleagues in the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery knew he needed 
"a lot of guidance," he added. 

NOT TRAINED PROPERLY 

He said the soldier, who came to Germany in December 1999 after initial 
training in the United States, was only qualified to use an M-16 rifle, not 
the M-249 SAW machine gun he was assigned after his deployment to Kosovo. 

Peacekeepers were helping to build a fence round a school in the southeastern 
village of Gornja Slatina when Young's machine gun went off as he stood 
guard. Ricochet shots hit the boy. 

"He was deployed to Kosovo with a weapon he was not qualified on -- a 
violation of Army regulations," Johnson told military judge William Barto and 
the seven jurors. 

"No one in his immediate chain of command gave him hands-on training on how 
to use the machine gun." Young also had no experience in dealing with 
children: "He was there alone with a lot of kids, there was no interpreter 
and no guidance." 

Johnson said the dead boy's father had forgiven Young and asked him to visit 
his home. 

But Captain Marie Anderson accused Young of negligence and lack of 
discipline: "He repeatedly placed his weapon on the ground and allowed 
children to touch it. Then he pulled the trigger to test whether the weapons 
safety switch was engaged." 

The trial could last until Tuesday, military spokesmen said. 

Last August, another soldier on peacekeeping duty in Kosovo, former U.S. Army 
Sergeant Frank Ronghi, was sentenced to life in prison for sodomising and 
killing an 11-year-old Albanian girl.