For Louise, “the army has always been a dream”, and his job “real pride”. At 18, she hired as a weapons mechanic. After four years of service, she chose to join the Nancy-Ochey air base, in Meurthe-et-Moselle. In 2020, on a mission in Niamey, Niger, she says she was the victim of rape on Christmas Eve, which she remembers only in flashes. It was the pain, she explains, that made her realize what was going on. The next day, she files a complaint against her alleged rapist at the camp gendarmerie, and goes to the infirmary. In shock, the young woman requests emergency repatriation to France. But from then on, according to her, her care was deplorable.
“Nobody wants to have me repatriated, the doctor even offers me, after what has happened, to go back to work: perhaps, I am told, that will change my mind, it might be necessary that I relativize… “
Louise, mechanic in the army, alleged victim of rape during a missionto “Further investigation”
Louise deplores the lack of listening of the medical service, which would have had no answer, before her repatriation a week later, than the chemical straitjacket: “Valium and Tercian in high doses. I was completely high on”, she asserts. Are army doctors trained to take in a rape victim? When questioned, the Army health service replied in the affirmative, but refused to comment on this matter.
“This event made me develop a hatred of the military world”
According to the conclusions of the Thémis cell, in charge of internal army investigations into cases of sexual violence, “the investigations carried out did not make it possible to characterize these facts, [car] all the testimonies do not agree “. The alleged rapist, who denies the lack of consent, is still stationed in the army. Louise, she is on long-term sick leave. Depressed, she suffers from agoraphobia, and was placed on anxiolytics.
Since this trauma, Louise has developed “a hatred of the military world”. “For me, the army hushed up the affair. This person is still at work, and has had no accountability,” denounces the young woman, who “don’t know[t] not how to apprehend the future, and how [se] rebuild without judgment and without acknowledging what happened that night “. The judicial investigation is still ongoing.
Extract from “Harassment in the army: soldiers are breaking the silence”, a document to be seen in “Further investigation” on January 6, 2022.
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