Posted on 11/22/2004 11:05:18 PM PST by kattracks
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 22 (Reuters) - The United Nations is investigating about 150 allegations of sexual abuse by U.N. civilian staff and soldiers in the Congo, some of them recorded on videotape, a senior U.N. official said on Monday.The accusations include pedophilia, rape and prostitution, said Jane Holl Lute, an assistant secretary-general in the peacekeeping department.
Lute, an American, said there was photographic and video evidence for some of the allegations and most of the charges came to light since the spring.
"We are shining a light on this problem in order to determine its scope, and we will not stop there," Lute told a news conference.
She did not say if 150 different people were involved but indicated some suspects committed more than one offense.
In May the United Nations reported some 30 cases of abuse among peacekeepers in the northeastern town of Bunia, where half of the more than 10,000 soldiers are stationed.
Last month, one French soldier and two Tunisian soldiers were sent home, U.N. officials said. Three U.N. civilian staff were suspended.
The United Nations has jurisdiction over its civilian staff but troops are contributed by individual nations. Consequently, the world body has only the power to demand a specific country repatriate an accused soldier and punish him or her at home.
Jean-Marie Guehenno, the U.N. undersecretary-general for peacekeeping, went to the sprawling central African country, formally called the Democratic Republic of the Congo, last month. He has promised an overhaul of staff discipline.
REPORT ON ABUSE
The U.N. internal oversight office is expected to release a report soon on the abuse in Bunia. In addition, the peacekeeping department is sending at least two other teams to Congo to deal with various aspects of the problem, Lute said.
Also visiting the Congo within the past month was Jordan's U.N. ambassador, Prince Zeid Ra'ad Al-Hussein, who serves as a special adviser on sexual exploitation. One of his tasks is to persuade governments to act on charges against their soldiers.
The prince, a former military man, served as a political affairs officer for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Bosnia, from 1994 to 1996.
The United Nations mission in the Congo has some 10,800 peacekeepers and some 60 civilian staff, led by American diplomat William Lacy Swing.
The revelations of peacekeeping abuses is usually kept quiet at the United Nations until reporters or individual countries disclose the news, as happened in Cambodia in the early 1990s and later in Somalia, Bosnia and Ethiopia. But in this case the world body released some details.
Annan on Friday expressed outrage at the abuse, saying, "I am afraid there is clear evidence that acts of gross misconduct have taken place."
"This is a shameful thing for the United Nations to have to say, and I am absolutely outraged by it," he said while in Tanzania where Guehenno briefed him.
Annan said the allegations concerned a small number of U.N. personnel and promised to hold those involved accountable.
"I have long made it clear that my attitude to sexual exploitation and abuse is one of zero tolerance, without exception, and I am determined to implement this policy in the most transparent manner," Annan said.
Same sh*t happened when they went a peackeepin' in Kosovo. Put out or die.
That's UN .
oh those crazy one-worlders
it is not UN-common.
Solution: Bounce the UN from the US and withold dues.
Was Kofi in the Congo? What did he know and when did he know it?
don't come crying to us.
"Annan said the allegations concerned a small number of U.N. personnel and promised to hold those involved accountable."
What's Kofi going to do? Shake 'em down for cash in return for "investigators" finding no credible evidence of misconduct?
When is America going to realize it was conned, once again, by the Jackal Pack Media, into believing the UN was a "good thing," when it fact it is a gaggle of crooks, graft artists, and tyrant-enablers?
Click this picture & goto "last" for the latest UN scandals:
Sex for Food Program?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.