Posted on 07/22/2006 9:24:59 AM PDT by wagglebee
UNITED Nations peacekeepers have abandoned at least 20 babies fathered with poverty-stricken Timorese women.
A UN investigation has also uncovered a culture of cover-up, in which babies born to peacekeepers and sex crimes committed by UN staff in the past seven years have been kept secret because of a "fear of shame and embarrassment' in the deeply religious country.
The findings will shock the UN bureaucracy as it prepares to boost by thousands its peacekeeping force in East Timor.
A report on the investigation, obtained by The Age, recommends that a policy of zero tolerance of sexual misconduct be enforced on UN staff sent to help rebuild the country after two months of violence.
UN peacekeepers in East Timor have previously been accused of offences including child sex abuse, bestiality, and coercing women and children into prostitution. No one has ever been charged.
But the report reveals for the first time that babies born to UN peacekeepers have been abandoned without financial support.
It also makes clear that the births of these children, and other instances of sexual misconduct by UN personnel, are likely to have been significantly under-reported.
The report says that the Timorese mothers of the babies fathered by peacekeepers have been stigmatised and, in some cases, ostracised by their communities. It also found that efforts within the UN to organise help for the women have failed.
In the mountainous coffee growing district of Ermera, soldiers have left behind seven young children after earlier promising to marry their mothers, the report says. In the district of Bobonaro, four babies were allegedly fathered by two UN police and two civilian staff.
A dowry was apparently paid to one family. But in most cases, the mother's family has been left to support the children.
The report was written by Sofi Ospina, an anthropologist commissioned by the UN to investigate the gender-related impact on East Timor of having 18,000 uniformed and civilian UN personnel from 113 nations in the country after UN operations began in 1999.
It comes as Secretary-General Kofi Annan prepares a report for the UN Security Council on the composition of a new mission for East Timor when the current one expires next month.
Ian Martin, a special UN envoy, has recommended the Security Council send police units backed by a rapid response force. He also recommends a military presence at least until after elections scheduled for May, and UN advisers to help organise the vote.
There are now 2500 Australian soldiers and police in East Timor, mostly in the capital, Dili.
While thousands of Australian soldiers and police have served in East Timor since 1999, none have been accused of sexual misconduct. The behaviour of some peacekeepers has outraged many UN staff, several of whom have resigned in disgust.
In one of the worst instances detailed in Ms Ospina's report, a peacekeeper from an unnamed country is alleged to have abused two boys and two girls in the enclave of Oecussi.
In early 2001, two soldiers were sent home with injured penises after allegedly attempting sexual intercourse with goats.
Ms Ospina says that, as in other UN operations, the arrival of peacekeepers has attracted prostitution. She refers to a study showing that in 2004 there were 250 female and 110 male sex workers in Dili. Of the males, 75 per cent were younger than 18.
The report says the fear and reluctance to report sexual misconduct by UN personnel may be justified. Both the perpetrators and, usually, the person to whom such cases would be reported are men in positions of relative power, the report says.
Local administrative authority is usually embedded in a traditional mind-set influenced by conservative Catholic ideology, it says. Women may expect not to receive a sympathetic hearing in such a context.
The report warns that the UN's credibility could be compromised by its inability to ensure that staff who commit sex crimes are prosecuted.
It recommends that commanders should communicate and enforce a policy of zero tolerance for sexual misconduct.
There should be immediate repatriation and disciplinary measures for all offenders.
The report says that accusations and rumours of sexual abuse should be investigated. Pregnancies and births resulting from sex with Timorese women should be documented and the UN should make sure that non-government organisations help the mothers and their children.
If this is what the UN's study came up with, the actual truth must be a whole lot worse.
DISCUSSION ABOUT:
UN's legacy of shame in Timor (Abandoned babies)
UN "peacekeeper's" are raping women, impregnating them and then abandoning the babies.
Oh yeah, and some of Kofi Annan's bluehelmets are sexually assaulting goats.
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Oh, sure. I can hear it know. Kofi Annan saying, "I am shocked, shocked!"
UN peacekeepers have engaged in sex trafficking and child rape wherever they have gone, and the facts are well known but generally suppressed by the UN-loving MSM press. Child rape is OK as long as it's committed in a good cause, evidently.
These are not aberrations, I'm afraid. This is the corrupt UN system under leaders like Kofi Annan, architect of the Oil for Food scandal.
I agree. The UN is one of the most corrupt organizations in the history of the world.
I read about two years ago that some of these UN peacekeepers are nothing short of thugs. In their own country, they're unemployed and would be in jail yet they're hired to protect others in war-torn countries. The fox is guarding the henhouse approach. This type of action is frightening when leaders from other countries are yelling for UN peacekeepers to be lodged in war-torn countries.
Oh, sure. I can hear it know. Kofi Annan saying, "I am shocked, shocked!"
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The very fact that the U.N. still exists on the shores of America shows, without any contest, that our government has degenerated to such a low level of morals, ethics and standards -- that it continues to pander to these outright filthy criminals -- kinda like their continued support of the ACLU...
I'm sure the UN bureaucrazis believe that those babies should never have come into existence in the first place. It's their own fault that they were even born.
On average in the US, 1 child receives 17% of pre-tax income from the father, 2 = 22%, 3 = 27%.
Seems to me a bunch of UN officials owe child support, plus back child support, the cost of the birth of the child, medical care, insurance and arrears for failing to provide for the child.
That could easily land any US man in prison, start locking em up now.
I know this will sound crass, but
soldiers fathering babies with
foreign women has been one of the
psychological adjuncts of warfare
since the citizens of Eden left the
Garden; Nature's call, so to speak.
In fact, Roman soldiers were
encouraged to take temporary "wives"
in conquered lands to further the
influence of Imperial Rome throughout
"the world." A Roman Dad and a native
Mom instilled respect for both nations
in the next generation, dispelling the
idea of revenge.
So where does screwing goats fit into all of this?
LOL! How I wish it were true...I'd buy the slimy conniver a one way ticket myself!
The sad part is that UNMISET is about the cleanest program that the UN has ever had. Were this a typical African UN force, we'd be talking about thousands of babies, not 20.
Apparently nobody here remembers the thousands of Amerasian children in Vietnam.
"If this is what the UN's study came up with, the actual truth must be a whole lot worse."
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/peacekpg/general/aids2.htm
AIDS Being Spread by its Peacekeepers
By Betsy Pisik
Washington Times
July 7, 2000
The U.N. Security Council, under pressure from the United States, said Thursday that U.N. peacekeepers are spreading the AIDS virus. "Six months ago, countries didn't want to have a discussion on AIDS," said U.S. Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke. "Today, we have been told by every member of the Security Council that they are ready to go with this." Mr. Holbrooke cited cases in which Finnish soldiers had brought the virus home after peacekeeping tours.
snip....
This is not the first time the council has sought to address peacekeepers' role in spreading of the AIDS virus. Beginning in February, the council began adding a boiler-plate paragraph to every peacekeeping resolution "encouraging efforts by the United Nations to sensitize peacekeeping personnel in the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases in all its peacekeeping operations."
To my knowledge,the MSM never addressed this.
The UN is a welfare organization for international busybodies who enjoy their apartments, expense accounts, and the nightlife of mid-town Manhattan. If there were no UN they might be forced to return to their own countries where there are no jobs, nightlife, or expense accounts.
I am convinced that is really what the UN is about.
And that was just as wrong as what the UN workers are doing now.
Plus they can park their cars wherever they want without fear of a ticket.
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