WSJ: Sex for Food -- Kofi Annan's Abu Ghraib -- and what he hasn't done about it

Wall Street Journal ^ | December 29, 2004 | Editorial

[OESY]

Two years after the charges first surfaced, Kofi Annan has finally admitted that U.N. peacekeeping troops sexually abused war refugees in the Democratic Republic of Congo. "I am really shocked by these accusations," the United Nations Secretary-General told reporters last week.

He shouldn't be. Allegations of sex crimes committed by U.N. staff and troops date back at least a decade and span operations on three continents, in places like Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Cambodia. But rather than showing the kind of "zero tolerance" toward sexual crimes that Mr. Annan now promises, the U.N. has treated such instances with cavalier nonchalance.

In Congo, some 150 cases are under investigation. The charges range from rape, in which some victims were children, to sexual exploitation. In some cases, women and young girls have been coaxed into sex in exchange for essential food items. A French U.N. staffer was arrested for raping underage girls and taking digital pictures of them. He has been sent back home where he will stand trial.

U.N. officials reportedly are worried that if these pictures and other rape videos allegedly shot by U.N. troops find their way into the media, it could become the U.N.'s "Abu Ghraib." The difference, of course, is that the abuses in Iraq came quickly to light through the chain of command and were immediately prosecuted by the U.S. military. In contrast, the U.N. is investigating the cases in Congo only after much delay and even now is unwilling to "name and shame" the countries whose soldiers committed these crimes.

[Conspiracy Guy]

Glad you liked it. I was beginning to think that only I thought it was funny.

[Tax-chick]

Pretty funny.

[Conspiracy Guy]

Thanks ; )

[freedumb2003]

Good quip!! :)

[Conspiracy Guy]

I tell it like it is!

[MeekOneGOP]

To Kofi Annan with love,

Bart

[alrea]

part of the UN soldier gig:

free local women

paid in local tax

sweetheart deals with merchants

mercenary territory

[Mr. Jeeves]

The difference, of course, is that the abuses in Iraq came quickly to light through the chain of command and were immediately prosecuted by the U.S. military.

The difference, of course, is that the MSM has no interest in the misdeeds of the UN because their Democrat allies derive no political benefit from the publicizing of them.

[alrea]

the MSM has no interest in the misdeeds of the UN because their Democrat allies derive no political benefit from the publicizing of them

Thanks for hitting the nail on the head on this. We are beginning to realize that much of media reality depends on whether there is a Democrat with a horse in the race.