Posted on 01/09/2005 11:09:53 AM PST by Happy2BMe
LAST MONTH A CLASSIFIED UNITED Nations report prompted Secretary General Kofi Annan to admit that U.N. peacekeepers and staff have sexually abused or exploited war refugees in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The worst of the 150 or so allegations of misconduct--some of them captured on videotape--include pedophilia, rape, and prostitution. While a U.N. investigation into the scandal continues, the organization has just suspended two more peacekeepers in neighboring Burundi over similar charges. The revelations come three years after another U.N. report found "widespread" evidence of sexual abuse of West African refugees.
"The issue with the U.N. is that peacekeeping operations unfortunately seem to be doing the same thing that other militaries do," Gita Sahgal of Amnesty International told the Christian Science Monitor. "Even the guardians have to be guarded." That's not far off the mark. Various U.N. reports and interviews with humanitarian groups suggest that international peacekeeping missions are creating a predatory sexual culture among vulnerable refugees--from relief workers who demand sexual favors in exchange for food to U.N. troops who rape women at gunpoint.
Allegations of sexual abuse or misconduct by U.N. staff stretch back at least a decade, to operations in Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. A 2001 report, released by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Save the Children, found that sexual violence against refugees in West Africa was endemic (though some of its findings were denied by a subsequent U.N. team). A year later a coalition of religious organizations sent a letter to Secretary of
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It now appears, however, that little has changed on the ground. The U.N. Mission in Congo (MONUC) employs about 10,800 peacekeepers from 50 countries, in addition to many civilian staff. Yet there is no independent oversight of U.N. operations in its refugee camps. For that matter, none of the international agencies in the country has U.N. authority to protect the civil rights of internal refugees. Almost a year after the MONUC office in Kindu sent a memo in August 2003 to its headquarters in Kinshasa, detailing suspicions of sexual exploitation, the London Independent discovered action still hadn't been taken.
"We recognize that sexual exploitation and abuse is a problem in some missions," said Jane Holl Lute, a U.N. assistant secretary general, at a recent press conference. "It's obvious that the measures we've had in place have not been adequate." Relief organizations and human rights groups agree, describing as "urgent" the need to protect young girls from U.N. militia and staff. As Patrick Barbier, of Doctors Without Borders, told one newspaper: "It is clear that the necessary steps to protect the displaced population from violence and sexual exploitation have not been followed."
Indeed, the international operation in Bunia, home to about 16,000 refugees, threatens to become another monument to U.N. paralysis and failure. Investigators describe a "significant, widespread and ongoing" pattern of abuse at the camp--an astonishing conclusion given that many women are afraid to report sexual violence against them. At least one senior official in charge of security in Bunia is implicated in the scandal, and U.N. peacekeepers allegedly have threatened investigators with retaliation. According to the Economist, a U.N. probe is even considering the possibility that MONUC has been infiltrated by "organized pedophiles who recruit their friends."
The charade of legitimacy at the United Nations is wearing thin. It's about time the UN was disbanded.
Regards, Ivan
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"It is clear that the necessary steps to protect the displaced population from violence and sexual exploitation have not been followed."
Given the behavior I'm surprised that Paul Rubin aka Pee-Wee Herman, and Larry Flynt aren't being put out as considered to head aid posts by the UN.
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"It is clear that the necessary steps to protect the displaced population from violence and sexual exploitation have not been followed."
You DO KNOW who was primed to replace Kofi had John Kerry been elected. Right?
The Telegraph just did a marvelous feature that focuses on the comedy of the UN saying it is "coordinating and managing all Tsunami relief" when in reality they are just waving their laminated blue plastic badges.
The UN (hopefully) will go the way of the League of Nations soon.
To Kofi Annan with love,Bart
"But it was the weasels who scuppered any return to business-as-usual. Messrs Chirac and de Villepin barely paused for breath before moving on from their pre-war sabotage programme to a revised post-war sabotage programme."
The United Nations Wants to TAX you!
"Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali ... urged the [UN] to consider imposing its own taxes to become less dependent on the United States...."
-Washington Times, January 16, 1996
Are you concerned that...
...numerous taxation schemes to finance the UN are being considered?
Economist James Tobin proposed in 1972 that the UN be the recipient of a tax of 0.05% on foreign exchange transactions. In 1993, the Ford Foundation produced Financing an Effective United Nations, a report containing recommendations that the UN tax airline traffic, shipping, and arms sales. In 1995, the UN-funded Commission on Global Governance suggested that the UN collect levies from those who use "flight lanes, sea lanes for ships, ocean fishing areas, and the electromagnetic spectrum." Ultimately, of course, the burden of all taxation falls on consumers.
Are you concerned that...
...a State Department study specifically proposed giving the UN taxing power and, ultimately, control of the world?
In 1962, the State Department financed a study entitled "A World Effectively Controlled by the United Nations." The report outlined what would be needed for such a total world government: "a mandatory universal membership," an ability to use "physical force," and "compulsory jurisdiction" of its courts. One of the UN's "principle features," stated the report, would be "enforceable taxing powers." (Emphasis added.)
Are you concerned that...
...no matter how much our nation gives, the UN will never be satisfied?
In addition to hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars in foreign aid, our nation has provided the UN with tens of billions more for its programs since 1945. Currently, U.S. contributions make up 25% of the UN's annual budget. But, in his May 2001 speech at Notre Dame University, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan complained with a typical anit-American attitude, "It is shameful that the United States ... should be one of the least generous in terms of helping the world's poor."
Are you concerned that...
...taxing authority would fuel an unaccountable UN Superstate?
Former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said of a UN tax: "We would not be under the daily financial will of member states who are unwilling to pay up." UN Founder Harlan Cleveland made the same point in Futures: Rather than relying on "the worn-out policy of year-to-year decisions by individual governments" (about how much to give the UN), "what's needed is a flow of funds for development which are generated automatically under international control." And there would be no Congress to limit the UN's appetite for your tax dollars!
The United Nations Wants to Take Your Land!
"Private land ownership ... contributes to social injustice.... Public control of land use is therefore indispensable."
- United Nations "Habitat I" Conference Report, 1976
Are you concerned...
...that the UN is militantly anti-property rights?
The UN is dominated by socialist, communist, and other collectivist regimes that are hostile to private property, the basis of our freedom and prosperity. Karl Marx wrote in the Communist Manifesto that "the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: abolition of private property." Marx continued: "In one word, you reproach us with intending to do away with your property. Precisely so; that is just what we intend."
Are you concerned...
...that the UN intends to carry out Marx's plan?
In true Marxist fashion, the report of the UN "Habitat I" Conference declares that private land ownership "contributes to social injustice.... Public control of land use is therefore indispensable...." Agenda 21, the UN's massive environmental manifesto, envisions a UN empowered to control and micro-manage our planetary environment and the actions of every person on Earth. It says: "All countries should undertake a comprehensive national inventory of their land resources" and "develop national land-management plans." The UN's Assessment would "reallocate" property rights and have "stakeholder groups," instead of property owners, make decisions on private land use.
Are you concerned...
...that our own U.S. government is adopting many of the UN's anti-property rights and policies and treaties?
The U.S. has signed Agenda 21 and has begun implementing the UN's "Wildlands Project," an incredible plan to push millions of Americans off their land to make vast nature preserves out of half of the nation. Also, under the UN's 1988 Convention on Narcotics, the U.S. has adopted unconstitutional "asset forfeiture" laws that allow seizure of property without due process.
Are you concerned...
...that UN treaties could destroy our heritage of freedom?
Nobel Prizewinning economist, Friedrich A. Hayek, noted that "the system of private property is the most important guaranty of freedom, not only for those who own property, but scarcely less for those who do not. It is only because the control of the means of production is divided among many people acting independently that nobody has complete power over us, that we as individuals can decide what to do with ourselves."
A long time ago, my Political Science professor went through an interesting exercise - he compared the League of Nations to the United Nations in terms of effectiveness of conflict resolution. Surprise, surprise, the much maligned League was better at it.
It's time we ended this and realised that genuine alliances, not talking shops, are the only international institutions that matter.
Regards, Ivan
When/if Sick Slick get's to be Sec. General of the U.N. you can expect more of the same....but a bit closer to the top...if you get my meaning.
Good post.....
1 DIPLOMAD UN update - The "Turd" World And The High Priest Vulture Elite
2 Something Slightly Different
But of course the SPERM-A-Nator himself.
Many years ago, that would have surprised me. Not today. I used to actually believe the UN actually "did something" until I worked with the UNHCR in Sarajevo, flying in airlift relief in 1994.
The UN was the sorriest lot of nincompoops, cowards, and malcontents I ever had the misfortune of knowing. They brought absolutely nothing to the operation. No airlift, no armed security, no ground handling equipment, no communications---nothing except "the Grand Canyon of Need." We wet nursed them.
By the way, the RAF flew in relief using your C-130's stationed at Lyneham, and also brought in many of your Atlas loaders as well. Bravo!
Nice post--thanks.
The UN building should be demolished... with no notice to the inhabitants thereof.
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