Chu Testifies
on Alleged Overseas Sexual Assaults
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Feb. 25, 2004 – The Defense Department's senior
personnel official today assured Senate Armed Services Committee
members that the military would get to the bottom of allegations
that scores of female service members were sexually assaulted
during overseas deployments.
"Sexual assault is a crime," David S.C. Chu, the
undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, declared
in his opening remarks to members of the SASC's personnel
subcommittee.
Chu said DoD policy prohibiting sexual assault "is clear
in the law, it is clear in the regulations of the department, it
is clear in the statements of the secretary of defense."
He also responded to committee references to published news
reports about sexual misconduct and bad treatment of alleged
victims. Chu pointed out steps the department is taking.
On Feb. 5 Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld directed the
stand-up of a special task force to investigate media reports of
alleged sexual assaults on service members serving overseas and
to examine how DoD treats and cares for victims.
Senior Pentagon official Ellen P. Embrey is now traveling
"in the Central Command area of operations, including Iraq,
to look at this issue and to begin the fact-finding and data
collection," Chu noted.
Embrey, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for force
health protection and readiness, was appointed to head the task
force Feb. 13. She is slated to report her findings to Rumsfeld
in 90 days.
Another principal focus of the task force's review is to
examine "how we take care of the victim" of sexual
assaults, Chu said, as well as how to prevent sexual assaults.
"We recognize we are not immune from the ills of the
civil population," Chu acknowledged. Yet the military, he
pointed out, demands a higher standard of conduct for its
service members.
"And we aim to meet that standard," Chu asserted.
Indeed, incidences of sexual assault within the military have
decreased by almost half since 1995, Chu cited from data taken
in a military personnel survey conducted in 2002.
"Our challenge that we must meet is how to enforce a
higher code of behavior," Chu declared. Although DoD has
succeeded in greatly reducing incidents of sexual harassment and
more serious types of sexual misconduct in recent years, Chu
acknowledged that the military "is not perfect."
That's why, Chu noted, the defense secretary ordered up the
sexual assault task force and DoD-wide review.
"We are committed to making the improvements that are
necessary to get the next round of improvement," Chu
declared, "and, above all, to care for the victim properly
… and to work to prevent such assaults from taking
place."
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