UN staff accused of raping children in Sudan

[shance]

UN staff accused of raping children in Sudan



Kate Holt in Juba and Sarah Hughes
London Telegraph
Wednesday, January 3, 2007

The UN said today that it would launch an investigation after the Daily Telegraph reported allegations that UN personnel have abused children in southern Sudan.

Members of the United Nations peacekeeping forces in southern Sudan are facing allegations of raping and abusing children as young as 12, The Daily Telegraph reported today.

The abuse allegedly began two years ago when the UN mission in southern Sudan (UNMIS) moved in to help rebuild the region after a 23-year civil war. The UN has up to 10,000 military personnel in the region, of all nationalities and the allegations involve peacekeepers, military police and civilian staff.

The first indications of possible sexual exploitation emerged within months of the UN force’s arrival and The Daily Telegraph has seen a draft of an internal report compiled by the UN children’s agency Unicef in July 2005 referring to the problem.

This paper has learnt of more than 20 victims’ accounts claiming that some peacekeeping and civilian staff based in the town are regularly picking up young children in their UN vehicles and forcing them to have sex. It is thought that hundreds of children may have been abused.

advertisement"I was sitting by the river the first time it happened,” said Jonas, 14, one of more than 20 children who claimed they had been abused this way.


More at link:


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/03/wsudan03.xml
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EDIT: COPYRIGHT. PLEASE POST ONLY 4 OR 5
PARAGRAPHS FROM THE COPYRIGHTED NEWS SOURCE
PER DU RULES.

[SanCristobal]

1. The UN can't even win against its own peacekeepers?

Is there anything it can do right?:evilfrown:

[LynnTheDem]

24. 1. Peacekeepers are not under UN jurisdiction. 2. What US city

has not had children raped? Can't the US do anything right?

The problem isn't the UN.

[Mizmoon]

2. Beyond evil

That is just plain beyond evil. What kind of human being would rape a starving child? And the boy so poor he's hoping to be a prostitute? Oh God, the world is a dark, dark place sometimes.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

6. What kind of human being would do this?

Well, it seems pretty normal behavior for the militia backed by the current (can I say "islamic"?) Sudanese government. Doing whatever it takes to "cleanse" Sudan.

That's why I'm skeptical at this time of the report of UN rapists.

[noamnety]

7. Yeah, it's typical for those "Other" people

lord knows white Americans don't commit rape, or equate sex with violence. :eyes:

[sanskritwarrior]

16. The UN

has a history of this kind of crap.

[jus_the_facts]

3. UNacceptable...beyond heinous...

:evilfrown:

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

4. I'm skeptical, gotta let the investigation happen

A guy in a white car with "UN" on the side and a badge is not necessarily a UN worker. Could just be another Sudanese thug in disguise.

Just like a guy in Baghdad with a police uniform is not necessarily a cop.

[noamnety]

5. What else could one expect?

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=42088">UN troops raping children in the congo.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=14271">Belgian troops roasted a Somali boy.


http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/12/13/rwanda.france.rape.reut/index.html">French soldiers raped Rwandan women who had sought refuge in their bases.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/01/17/wleon17.xml"> UN troops accused of 'systematic' rape in Sierra Leone.


http://www.geocities.com/famous_bosniaks/english/general_lewis_mackenzie.html"> CANADIAN UN 'PEACEKEEPER' RAPED FOUR TEENAGE BOSNIAN GIRLS IN SERB-RUN CONCENTRATION CAMP.

http://www.ourcivilisation.com/moral/un.htm">internal U.N. audits later show requests from Phnom Penh included 6500 flak jackets — and 300,000 condoms.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6195830.stm">Children subjected to rape and prostitution by United Nations peacekeepers in Haiti and Liberia.


http://www.chronwatch.com/content/contentDisplay.asp?aid=23948">"Women and girls as young as 11 are being sold into sexual slavery in Kosovo and international peacekeepers are not only failing to stop it, they are actively fuelling this despicable trade by themselves paying for sex from trafficked women."

Of course, the big UN scandal is the oil for food thing. Oil & Money > women and children.

[shance]

10. What in men causes such horrible abuse on those who can't defend themselves?

Is it systemic of our monetary/classist/racist/patriarchal system that places value on some more than others?

Is it that oppression breeds more oppression and violence towards those who are not as strong?

Over blown testosterone?

[sanskritwarrior]

18. One might ask

why female American teachers do the same???

[Selatius]

25. It's about power.

UN peacekeepers have power over those who are helpless. Power corrupts, as they say.

[noamnety]

26. I think you summed it up fairly well

Though I might have moved patriarchal to the front of a list involving rape.

Images in the advertising, in video games, in music videos, often - though not always - in religion, and in porn reinforce the idea that women are objects to be dehumanized, bought and sold as commodities, and dominated through violence. People are flooded with that message consistently throughout their entire lives.

Not that the media invented rape by invading forces, the idea of hypermasculine armies using rape as a means of terrorizing the population predates that, obviously. UN troops look like and act like armies, and it doesn't matter if you attach the word "humanitarian" to their mission, they still are guys with weapons.

People who think sending in UN peacekeeping troops to Iraq would do well to look at history before acting like it's gonna be the solution to everything. When you put troops, UN or not, into an area, prostitution and sex trafficking become a local economy where the troops are. Men feel entitled to have sex, and if they aren't home by their own women, they will get it in whatever way they "need" to.

[nam78_two]

8. K&R

So saddening....specially the kid that goes back..
There are no words....

[Reterr]

9. OMG...thats so sick

Those poor kids! K&R...

[judaspriestess]

11. why does everything have to revolve around sex?

this is disgusting.

on edit: how can anyone be aroused in this type of situation. Humans are pathetic.

[donco6]

12. This sounds very fishy to me.

Remember the Bulgarian nurses accused of spreading AIDS in Libya? Methinks the opposition government who are opposed to UN intervention is purposely spreading these stories. But I have no proof. Just a feeling.

[struggle4progress]

13. Some of this occurs: "UN troops" are actually a hodgepodge from ..

.. various national armies, sent on the peacekeeping missions, and the UN regulations ensure that only the government that sent the troops can actually discipline them for such crimes.

Thus, an accused soldier would be generally be tried in his home country, away from the alleged crime and the local victims, which probably means that no prosecution is possible unless other soldiers witness the crime and are willing to testify.

Changing the UN regulations would be difficult, because the US (for example) strongly opposes allowing anyone else to prosecute its soldiers.

[w4rma]

22. That explains the situation very well. Thanks. (nt)

[LynnTheDem]

23. George W. bUsh forces nations to sign agreements to NOT

prosecute US troops for any crimes they commit.

[Catherine Vincent]

14. Just horrible.

But the pic of this little girl should be on the cover of national geographic:



like the afghan girl:

[G Hawes]

15. Tragic and terrible

damn, just damn.

[LynnTheDem]

17. The Daily Telegraph.

Rupert MFing Murdoch.

Intertesting bit here from other media sources;

But last October, he implemented a "zero tolerance" policy on the subject. And he's issued new rules that ban staff from a range of activities, like paying for sex; having sex with children younger than 18, regardless of local law; and having sex with UN aid recipients.

Those rules, however, apply to UN employees only, not to peacekeepers, who are under the jurisdiction of their own national government and military commanders.

So is the problem with the UN employees, or the non-UN-jurisdiction peacekeepers? What a frigging mess.

Better just do away with the UN though. Especially now that any nation can just attack any other based on any chosen lie. It's called the bUsh Doctrine now.

[helderheid]

19. NO!!!!! Recommend this - fucking RECOMMEND THIS. Everyone needs to read this.

[sanskritwarrior]

20. I recommended

n/t

[helderheid]

21. thanks

[rman]

27. kick for exposure