UN peacekeepers banned from sex with Congolese

[emad]

Times
From James Bone in New York



THE United Nations has banned its peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo from having sex with local people but will keep handing out free condoms to its forces.

Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General, imposed the new “non-fraternisation” rules, including a night-time curfew at military bases, in response to reports of widespread sexual exploitation by UN troops of under-age girls.

In a letter to the Security Council, Mr Annan also sought 100 extra police and French-speaking investigators to root out the abuse. “I reiterate my stance that we cannot tolerate even one instance of a United Nations peacekeeper victimising the most vulnerable among us,” he said.

The 13,000-strong mission, the largest in the world, has been plagued by sexual misconduct among peacekeepers and civilian officials working to restore peace to the war-torn African nation and help it to hold elections this year. The UN is investigating 150 cases of alleged abuse, ranging from rape and paedophilia to using prostitutes and bribing desperate under-age girls with eggs, milk and food for sex.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,174-1478773,00.html

[LinuxInsurgent]

1. oh god...

these guys have no shame...exploiting local poor girls...

Is there NO institution in the world with some sense of morality anymore?

[Strabo]

2. not in organized militaries...NT

[LinuxInsurgent]

3. apparently so...

there was a movie in Spanish "Pantaleon y las Visitadoras" that speaks about the "sexual needs" of the Peruvian Army soldiers way deep in the Amazon, away from women.

I guess this is just something that needs to be accounted for...militaries are like a plague on the land they arrive in...take all the resources away, destroy things, and leave all type of physical and eomtional scars...

[BrendaStarr]

4. The big shame is poverty and the use of it to get to women.

BTW the men were not the institution.

And BTW an institution cannot have morals.

You cannot turn your brain over to any group. That's the kind of thing the Bushies want from their supporters. Most of the admiration that we feel for any institution or person is due to media manipulation.

The UK people love their royal spoiled brats because their news media will work up stuff about how dear the family members are.

Just recently Price Charles was caught with his hand even more up the Brit's taxpayer's arse than the law allowed so: Surprise! They're going to have a wedding! Perfect fairy tale ending. Aren't they all so sweet!

I think that the UN has not so much planted media manipulation, but people's hopes that gave it an unnatural glow.

It's a huge institution. There are very moral people in it, and many who are not very moral.

We must keep our eyes open and keep working for our ideals.

Remember too that "moral outrage" got Bush close enough to steal another election.

[lateo]

5. It is hard to maintain faith in humans sometimes...

and this is one of them...sent there to help people...they wind up exploiting them...

[Skittles]

6. if all they had was sheep available

they'd be f***ing them too

[indigobusiness]

7. Condoleezza banned from sex with Congolese.

The woman's a menace.

[joefree1]

8. It's not about sex, it's about exploitation

Oh that'll work, telling soldiers not to have sex. That and the war on drugs are total BS by right wing fundies.

Why can't the moral police separate legal prostitution from exploitation of young people? Is it because they would rather make the issue about sex and not just any exploitation?

All over the world right wingers are beating the drum of "sex is bad" while child labor and sweatshops are routinely ignored.

Another non sequitur war by Borg-agains.