In a UN scandal completely separate from the Iraq Oil For “Food” scandal (see previous post) and the Rwanda scandal in which the UN (and Jean Chretien and Bill Clinton) mostly sat around waiting until the end of the genocide in which 800,000 people were allowed to be killed, this newly exposed UN sex scandal has wide-ranging implications when one considers the number of UN troops scattered around the world doing next to nothing. This is an another UN onion that needs peeling.
By David Blair
(Filed: 11/01/2005)Peacekeeping troops guarding refugee camps in the Democratic Republic of Congo sexually abused girls as young as 13, giving out scraps of food or money in return for favours, the United Nations admitted yesterday.
A bar of chocolate or two eggs was the accepted payment for sex with young girls.
Many were orphans from a war that has claimed more lives than any since 1945.
Soldiers continued abusing children even after the onset of an internal UN inquiry.
Investigators found “freshly used condoms” littering guard posts and command centres around Bunia, where peacekeepers from Pakistan, Morocco, Nepal and Bangladesh are based. “We are shocked, we are outraged, we are sickened,” said William Lacy Swing, who heads the UN mission in Congo.
“Peacekeepers who have been sworn to assist those in need, particularly victims of sexual violence, instead have caused grievous harm. It is inexcusable. We are determined to stamp it out.”
Investigators concentrated on refugee camps at Bunia in north-eastern Congo.
They examined 72 allegations of abuse, of which seven were “fully substantiated”. The victims were girls aged between 13 and 18.
The investigators reported that many had been raped by gunmen during Congo’s civil war. The arrival in the country of 12,000 UN peacekeepers “augmented the problem”.
One girl of 14 reported that she was given two eggs in return for sex. Another peacekeeper rewarded her with ?1.60 and a packet of milk.
Another 14-year-old girl exchanged sex for a bar of chocolate and a loaf of bread.
A girl of 13 reported that she and her friends would go to the UN camp and have sex with different peacekeepers for between ?1.60 and ?2.60.
Reports say Pakistani, Moroccan and Uruguayan soldiers have all been charged with abuses. The UN can only repatriate them but it has called on member states to prosecute offenders.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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