... and that's just in THIS guy's office:
Posted on 11/30/2006 5:35:07 AM PST by bondjamesbond
Children have been subjected to rape and prostitution by United Nations peacekeepers in Haiti and Liberia, a BBC investigation has found. Girls have told of regular encounters with soldiers where sex is demanded in return for food or money.
A senior official with the organisation has accepted the claims are credible.
The UN has faced several scandals involving its troops in recent years, including a DR Congo paedophile ring and prostitute trafficking in Kosovo.
The assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping operations acknowledges that sexual abuse is widespread.
"We've had a problem probably since the inception of peacekeeping - problems of this kind of exploitation of vulnerable populations," Jane Holl Lute told the BBC.
"My operating presumption is that this is either a problem or a potential problem in every single one of our missions."
'Rampant'
The UN is scheduled to hold a special conference in New York on Monday 4 December, to address the issue.
The BBC inquiry was commissioned as part of Generation Next - a week of programmes focusing on people under 18.
In Haiti, the BBC's Mike Williams spoke to a street girl as young as 11 who had reported sexual abuse by peacekeepers outside the gates of the presidential palace in Port-au-Prince.
A 14-year-old described her abduction and rape inside a UN naval base in the country two years ago.
Despite detailed medical and circumstantial evidence, the allegation was dismissed by the UN for lack of evidence - and the alleged attacker returned to his home country.
In Liberia, meanwhile, a 15-year-old said she had been attacked by a UN officer on 15 November.
In May this year, another BBC investigation discovered systematic abuse in Liberia, involving food being given out to teenage refugees in return for sex.
The UN responded by heightening policing measures, appointing 500 monitors across the country, and introducing mandatory training of all personnel on appropriate conduct.
A local NGO worker said reports of sexual abuse involving peacekeepers were "still rampant, despite pronouncements that they have been curbed".
'Culture of silence'
UN chief Kofi Annan has pledged a policy of "zero tolerance".
"To prey upon the very populations that you are sent to protect is one of the worst forms of violation and betrayal that there is" -- Sarah Martin of Refugees International.
The UN's own figures show 316 peacekeeping personnel in all missions have been investigated, resulting in the summary dismissal of 18 civilians, repatriation of 17 members of Formed Police Units and 144 repatriations or rotations home on disciplinary grounds. However allegations remain that measures to police and curb misconduct are nowhere near as strong as they should be.
Refugees International says there remains a "culture of silence" in some military deployments, and fear of punishment is not enough to ensure compliance with UN rules.
"They may be military men but they are also humanitarian workers," Sarah Martin told the BBC.
"To prey upon the very populations that you are sent to protect is one of the worst forms of violation and betrayal that there is."
Under UN regulations, military personnel cannot be prosecuted in the country where they are serving, and it is up to the courts in their home countries to prosecute crimes committed.
The UN said it had firm knowledge of only two concrete examples of sex offenders being sent to jail, although it believed there could be others it did not know about.
The culture of rape continues at the UN.
... and that's just in THIS guy's office:
Well, since Oil-for-Food has been shut down, it seemed that Sex-for-Food was the logical next step!
Isn't that called prostitution? Cases of under age children and forcible assault are another issue.
Quick! Let's give the scandal a catchy name and utter it whenever the UN is mentioned!
Well, if the thought of Blue-Helmeted goons doling out meager scraps of food to starving women in return for sex is not enough to get you angry, there is plenty of child sex and forcible rape going on as well.
I think the facts are bad enough. People have to realize that the UN Peace-Keepers do not have the same discipline and chain-of-command as national troops. If a US soldier does this sort of thing, he has to answer to the United States government and the UCMJ. Many big rocks have been turned into little rocks by former US soldiers who have been convicted of just this sort of thing.
But if your local Blue-Helmeted Peace-Keeper gets busted for this, he gets shipped home and faces no punishment at all.
How dare the UN be criticized. It is the highest morale authority ever ever!
That is the UN. That's all there is. I don't need any sob stories to make me angry at the UN. These people are first victims of their own country then are further victimized by the UN. The propaganda, much of it generated in this country, credits the UN with helping people while the facts are just the opposite.
I don't understand how people can think the result could be any different. You take a bunch of young guys, give them guns and authority, and set them loose in a population that is completely dependent and subjected to them. Without strong discipline, this thing is going to happen all the time. Even with strong discipline, it happens from time to time, as we see with our forces in Iraq.
The difference is, that when one of our soldiers steps out of line, there is Hell to pay. The UN peacekeepers get off with a slap on the wrist, if that. It is the very nature of the UN Peacekeeping Force, as a trans-national entity accountable to nobody, that makes this situation inevitable.
After all, whenever you hear about a soldier being Court Martialed for rape, it's always a US soldier, right?
(of course, that's because everybody else's soldiers skate free, and doubly so for the blue-helmet boys)
I wonder if that's why bent willie, our ex bj president, wanted to be head of the un?
How about "UN Piece-Keeper"?
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