“Michael Bernhardt thought hard about killing someone in the village of My Lai on March 16th, 1968. But his potential target was not any of the 300 Vietnamese men, women and children who were massacred by American infantrymen that day. He did not fire a single shot at a Vietnamese civilian. The man Bernhardt thought of killing was his Commanding officer Captain Ernest Medina of C for Charlie Company, 1st Battalion American Division US Army.”
My Lai Massacre, The Soldier Who Refused to Fire
Stephen Fay, The Statesman Aug 3rd 1972
American officer Michael Bernhardt was undecorated by his nation and unclaimed by history. If not for such accounts as this one by Stephen Fay, Bernhardt would probably be known as another soldier who lived in a caravan earning a living welding machines and studying marine biology.
On March 16, 1968 when American troops started firing on innocent villagers of My Lai, unarmed men, women and children were huddled together and shot dead in hundreds. Women were raped and beaten before being killed. Till the last shot was fired 504 villagers were killed for absolutely no reason. There was no war here. It was plain murder.
As he watched the massacres unfold Michael Bernhardt was contemplating blowing Medina’s brains out. But he didn’t. “It was a helpless position” says Bernhardt sadly, “you don’t shoot your Commanding officer.”
Bernhardt was never a celebrity nor was he talked about though his decision not to fire is an act of great courage. He later went from trial to trial to give evidence against his “own people”.
On the same day a helicopter reconnaissance pilot Hugh Thomson was freaked out seeing what he saw; just dead bodies all over. He put his guns on Americans saying he would shoot them if another Vietnamese were shot. He then took the injured out of the ditches and took them to hospital.
So there are exceptions. People have stood up and said no.
I have often been asked that while I write about staged encounters and state sponsored killings, why don’t I talk of people who have showed exemplary courage in defying the same. I have in fact chronicled such stories in the past and each is an extraordinary tale of valour and defiance. Pitted against the reality of a democratic State whose agents arbitrarily kidnap, torture and kill for personal benefit or gratification there are some people who put their foot down. They often face the consequences and like Bernhardt they are not decorated.
A young army officer, grievously injured in an operation in Manipur, over ruled his Commanding Officer’s orders to blow up a village where four armed militants were holed up. He refused to touch even a single person, not even the militant who was apprehended in the encounter lasting several hours. The bleeding officer recorded as his dying wish that nobody be harmed in the village and the arrested persons be handed over to the police according to the law.
In the frighteningly banal culture of impunity in which we all play our part as credulous, mute spectators, there have been many who risked their life and stakes. Throughout the history of conflict there have been people, unrecorded and forgotten who have followed their conscience in refusing to take part in State-sponsored killings.
When the helicopter came to evacuate him, he insisted that the two children injured in the crossfire be taken first even while he required emergency treatment. Sixteen years later when he was reunited with the village, I accompanied him to a very emotional homecoming. In reality he had spent just one night in the village. They later adopted him as their son who saved them that fateful night.
In 1999 an operation was launched in Kashmir valley following the death of an Indian army Major killed in an encounter. A girl was found responsible for passing on the information. While the girl’s house was being searched, the accused was waiting at the army camp with her mother who alleged that Pakistani and Afghan militants forced her into being a conduit with her father’s permission. In the terrorist’s interpretation of Jihad the ideal role of women Jihadists is to entertain their male counterparts.
The raid found several photographs of the girl in embrace with the male militants, arms training manuals and explosives were seized from her house. When confronted the girl admitted her role in the encounter and confessed that she was coerced into the activity. Later the army Major who raided her house fell in love with the girl and in a course of dramatic events they finally got married and the officer now a Colonel and the girl who once carried bombs have two children.
In October 1999 in Nijhawan village near the Madhav Ridge on banks of river Sind in Kashmir, the Higher Head Quarter passed on information (and a photograph) to an army unit of a girl who they claimed was having a relationship with a Kashmiri militant. They were instructed to pick up the girl for questioning. It was a charged atmosphere and agitated mob started pelting stones. The girl was picked up and during questioning, she confessed to being in love with the militant. However, the Commanding Officer of the unit despite huge pressure from the top let the girl go. He maintained, there was no case against her.
In the frighteningly banal culture of impunity in which we all play our part as credulous, mute spectators, there have been many who risked their life and stakes. Throughout the history of conflict there have been people, unrecorded and forgotten who have followed their conscience in refusing to take part in State-sponsored killings. Sadly, there are no Ashok Chakras for them.
Kishalay Bhattacharjee is a senior journalist and author. His most recent book is Blood on my Hands: Confessions of Staged Encounters (Harper Collins 2015). The views expressed here are his own.
