| Subject: AP: UN Moves On Peacekeeper Sex
Abu
Full UN report at http://www.un.org/Docs/journal/asp/ws.asp?m=a/59/710
UN Moves On Peacekeeper Sex Abuse
UNITED NATIONS, March 24, 2005
(AP) A U.N. report on peacekeeper sex abuse released Thursday describes
the U.N. military arm as deeply flawed and recommends withholding salaries
of the guilty and requiring nations to pursue legal action against
perpetrators.
Those recommendations and several others come after repeated
allegations that peacekeepers exploited the very people they were sent to
protect. The report described a troubled system where peacekeepers have
often "failed to grasp the dangers confronting them, seduced by
day-to-day conditions that can be viewed as benign."
It said abuses had been reported in missions ranging from Bosnia and
Kosovo to Cambodia, East Timor, West Africa and Congo. While allegations
of abuse have dogged peacekeeping missions since their inception 50 years
ago, the issue was thrust into the spotlight after the United Nations
found earlier this year that peacekeepers in Congo had sex with Congolese
women and girls, usually in exchange for food or small sums of money.
"You cannot overstate the value of peacekeeping and what it can
bring to a society, so for that reason I think we must restore it,"
Prince Zeid al Hussein, Jordan's U.N. ambassador and the author of the
report, told The Associated Press before its release.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Zeid, who once served as a
peacekeeper in Bosnia, to study the Congo abuses and propose changes to
keep them from happening again.
One of his key tasks was finding ways to hold peacekeepers more
accountable in a system where the United Nations has few legal means to
take action and those accused of wrongdoing are often sent home and never
punished.
The task is especially troublesome because the United Nations does not
want to risk offending nations who provide scarce peacekeeping troops.
In the last several months, Zeid has discussed his proposals with
nations that contribute the most troops — such as Pakistan, Morocco,
Brazil and Bangladesh — and those that fund missions, like the United
States.
"My feeling is that most of the principal troop contributing
countries will agree to this formula," he said.
U.N. peacekeeping missions comprise soldiers, civilians and civilian
police who are held to different standards of conduct. Investigators
appointed to probe crimes often do not feel qualified to handle the cases.
And sometimes troops and civilians fail to understand the complexities
of the countries where they deploy. That must be counteracted, the report
said.
"There are at least some people in peacekeeping who perceive it as
almost a form of camping," Zeid said. "You can forget how
wounded and traumatized the people you're working with are. You can make
assumptions that you're entering into a normal consensual relationship if
you're a civilian staff member and often those assumptions may be
misguided."
The report makes a host of recommendations, many focusing on ways to
hold peacekeepers more accountable by strengthening the U.N. rules for
nations that contribute peacekeepers.
One idea is that militaries court martial soldiers accused of
wrongdoing in the country where the claims were made. Another asks that
nations agree to refer cases to national courts for prosecution if a U.N.
investigation finds their peacekeepers committed abuse, Zeid said.
Currently, U.N. troops and employees accused of wrongdoing are sent
home to be dealt with by their own government but are often never
punished.
The United Nations could also withhold salaries for peacekeepers found
guilty and put the money in a fund to care for their victims or the babies
they father.
"There is a need to try to ensure that the fathers, who can be
identified, perhaps through blood or DNA testing, bear some financial
responsibility for their actions," the report said.
The report also calls for the United Nations to form an investigative
arm to pursue misconduct allegations.
With the United Nations burdened by scandals including alleged
corruption in the oil-for-food program in Iraq and allegations of sexual
harassment by U.N. staff, officials have sought to deal with the
peacekeeper sex abuse issue quickly.
Zeid set 2007 as a target date to complete many of his recommendations.
In a clear reference to the United States, he said members' concerns had
weighed heavily when he wrote the report. The United States contributes
about 25 percent of peacekeeping budgets, the most of any nation.
"Parliaments, and especially those legislatures of the largest
contributors to the U.N. peacekeeping budget, may feel ill at ease over
continuing to extend support to peacekeeping in the absence of any
significant change," Zeid said.
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