US complains about joint-smoking Swiss soldiers: reports



by Staff Writers



Geneva (AFP) July 5, 2008



The US embassy in Switzerland has complained to the authorities here about Swiss soldiers smoking joints and urinating against its mission's walls during their guard duty, reports said Saturday.

"Out of boredom they smoke joints. Then they are too lazy to look for a toilet, so they urinate whereever they see fit," Swiss-German language tabloid Blick reported.

Swiss defence ministry spokesman Sebastian Hueber confirmed the report, telling Swiss news agency ATS: "What the embassy was unhappy about was the tendency of certain soldiers to urinate and smoke joints during their surveillance mission."

But he said that the complaints were made last year, and that there had not been further complaints this year.

According to Blick, the US embassy had also complained about Swiss soldiers being negligent with their weapons on watch duty.

In March 2004, one soldier had left his rifle against the embassy's wall while he wandered off to urinate.

In another incident, a passer-by found two loaded assault rifles outside a building in Zurich where the US honorary consulate office is located, but the two soldiers responsible for them were missing, the paper said.

"How one must behave during embassy missions is now also a subject during their training," said Hueber.