WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Army will release an edited version of a report Monday dealing with members of a peacekeeping unit in Kosovo that have been disciplined for beating and abusing civilians they were there to protect.
"This squad was bad news," one senior Army official told CNN on Friday. "They were bad apples."
The report, which was introduced as evidence during the trial of convicted killer Staff Sgt. Frank Ronghi, shows that soldiers assigned to Ronghi's unit engaged in beatings, intimidation and illegal detention of civilians in the Kosovar town of Vitina.
Ronghi was sentenced to life in prison without parole after pleading guilty to premeditated murder, sodomy and committing indecent acts with an 11-year-old Kosovar Albanian girl earlier this year. His plea enabled him to avoid the death penalty.
Unit said to be 'generally abusive' toward women
Following Ronghi's arrest, the Army launched an investigation into the conduct of his unit, the 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Regiment of the famed 82nd Airborne Division.
The investigation was conducted to collect evidence to be used against Ronghi, but officials learned along the way that other members of his unit had also engaged in misconduct. Nine members of the unit, including four officers, were punished.
All of the punishments, announced in March and April of this year, was "non-judicial" or "administrative" in nature and the men were not jailed.
One official described the unit as "generally abusive" toward woman.
Investigators found that the nine soldiers had threatened civilians with weapons, assaulted people and held people in custody for unreasonable periods of time given their offenses.
Other punished soldiers not named
Military officials said the report raised questions about the kinds of training the men received in preparation for peacekeeping duty.
While the central facts of the case and the unit's conduct had already been made public, the 1,100-page report is expected to provide additional detail even after the extensive removal of classified material.
The names of the soldiers who were punished administratively were withheld by the Army since they were not charged with felony crimes, but Army officials did say that the punishments included reduction in rank, the withholding of pay and in several cases "career ending letters of reprimand."