by Our Foreign Desk

US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand claimed yesterday that the number of sex-related crimes occurring in US military communities is far greater than the Pentagon has publicly acknowledged.

The Democratic senator published a scathing critique highlighting the Defence Department ’s refusal to give information about sex assaults at several major bases.

The spouses of service members and civilian women who live or work near military facilities are especially vulnerable to being sexually assaulted, said Sen Gillibrand.

Yet they “remain in the shadows” because neither is counted in surveys conducted by the Defence Department to determine the prevalence of sexual assaults within the ranks.

“I don’t think the military is being honest about the problem,” said Ms Gillibrand, adding that her analysis of 107 sexual assault cases had found many punishments that were far too lenient.

She added that the word of the alleged assailant was more likely to be believed than that of the victim.

Less than a quarter of the cases went to trial and just 11 resulted in conviction for a sex crime.

Female civilians were the victims in more than half the cases, according to Ms Gillibrand, an outspoken campaigner for an overhaul of the military justice system.

In its annual report on sexual assaults in the military, released on Friday, the Defence Department claimed there had been significant progress in staunching an epidemic of such offences.

It insisted that sex crimes were falling and more victims are choosing to report them.

Defence Department spokeswoman Laura Seal added that the department did not have authority to include civilian victims in its surveys.

Sen Gillibrand said the case files that she had been eventually been given access to contradicted the Pentagon’s assertion that military commanders would be tough on service members accused of sex crimes.

She has backed legislation that would remove base commanders from the process of deciding whether serious crimes, including sexual misconduct cases, go to trial.

Under her proposed legislation, judgement as to whether to proceed with a case would rest with seasoned military attorneys who have prosecutorial experience.The Pentagon is opposed to the change.