29702: Craig (news) U.N. PEACEKEEPERS ACCUSED OF RAPE (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From:  Dan Craig


U.N. PEACEKEEPERS ACCUSED OF RAPE
By Reed Lindsay
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

LEOGANE, Haiti -- Reports that peacekeepers raped teenage girls have surfaced 
in Haiti, where a United Nations mission so far had avoided the sexual abuse 
scandals that have sullied the international organization's reputation in other 
parts of the world.

   Natasha, whose real name is being withheld to protect her, says she was 
raped by a Sri Lankan peacekeeper in this quiet city an hour west of 
Port-au-Prince when she was 15 years old. Her mother forbade her from making a 
complaint, until now, nearly two years later.

   "I thought they came for peace, not war," said Natasha, now 17, who was the 
top student in her eighth grade class before she was forced to drop out after 
the purported rape. "I thought they came to protect us. I never thought they 
could abuse me in this way."

   However, the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti has investigated 34 other 
cases of reported sexual abuse and exploitation since it arrived in the country 
2½ years ago. Among them is the case of a 15-year-old girl who in September 
2004 accused a Brazilian peacekeeper of raping her inside a U.N. naval base.

   U.N. spokesman David Wimhurst said three investigations conducted found no 
evidence substantiating Natasha's charges. The girl's lawyer condemns the 
investigations as a whitewash, complaining that the U.N. never gave him or his 
client the final report.

   No case of rape and only one case of sexual exploitation by U.N. personnel 
has been substantiated by the mission, which has more than 6,600 soldiers and 
1,700 police officers. In March 2005, a U.N. investigation concluded that two 
Pakistani riot police officers had paid for sexual relations with a woman in 
the city of Gonaives. They were removed from Haiti, dismissed from the police 
force and sentenced to one year in prison by the Pakistani government, Mr. 
Wimhurst said.

   "We take it very seriously," he said. "Clearly, the vast majority of our 
people are behaving themselves, and indeed, since some of these allegations 
don't pan out, I would say, it's not a huge problem."

   Some rights activists say, however, that some victims are either too afraid 
or too intimidated by the U.N. bureaucracy to come forward.

   "There are likely many more cases," said Polin Aleandre, a social worker who 
claims five street girls ages 9 to 13 received sexual advances from 
peacekeepers in front of the national palace. "Sex has a huge stigma in Haiti, 
and rape even more so. People don't talk about it at all."

   The United Nations has been rocked by a series of sexual abuse scandals 
implicating peacekeepers in recent years, highlighted by the revelation of 
widespread cases of rape, pedophilia and prostitution in the Democratic 
Republic of the Congo in 2004. In response, departing U.N. Secretary-General 
Kofi Annan publicly admitted to the United Nations' failure to stop sexual 
misconduct and began an internal effort to fight the problem.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20061217-122119-4767r.htm


   Since January 2004, the United Nations has investigated 319 peacekeepers for 
accusations of sexual abuse or exploitation, resulting in the repatriation of 
144 military personnel, 17 police officers and 18 civilian officials. The world 
body has no authority to punish wrongdoers and only can ask that their home 
countries do so.