Recent BBC investigation has revealed that girls have been subjected to rape and prostitution by the UN peacekeeping troops especially in Haiti and Liberia.
Although, UN chief Kofi Annan has pledged a policy of ‘zero tolerance’ yet refugees International says there remains a ‘culture of silence’ in some military deployments, and fear of punishment is not enough to ensure compliance with UN rules.
Statistically:
1. 2002, Bolkovac, a former IPTF officer investigating human trafficking and forced prostitution, reveled that UN peacekeepers went to nightclubs where girls as young as 15 were forced to dance naked and have sex with customers, and that UN personnel and international aid workers were linked to prostitution rings. Girls who refused to have sex were beaten and raped in bars by their pimps while the peacekeepers stood and watched.
2. 2003, hundreds of girls went in for sex slavery in Bosnia.
3. An eleven-year-old girl reported to have been sexually exploited in Haiti, outside the gates of presidential palace in Port- au- Prince.
4. 2004, a girl was raped and abducted inside a UN naval base.
5. 2005, seven UN staff sexually molested thirteen year old girls in Congo while in Burundi, the troop had sex with two prostitutes, one of whom was a minor.
6. November 2005, girls were being subjected to gang rape in Liberia.
7. May 2006, a BBC investigator had discovered that in Liberia, food was bartered with sex by the ‘peace keepers’.
Present scenario:
A senior official within the organization has accepted the claims. However, due to the lack of detailed medical and circumstantial evidence, the UN authorities dismissed the accusations.
According to the local NGO, the cases of sexual abuse involving the troops were, ’still rampant, despite pronouncements that they have been curbed.’
Although the data given by UN postulates that nearly 316 peacekeeping personnel have been put under investigation out of which 18 dismissals and 17 to 144 repatriations have taken place. Yet allegations remain that procedures to control the misdemeanors are nowhere near as strong as they ought to be.
No serious disciplinary action has been taken against Canadian naval officers who verbally and physically abused Cambodians during a United Nations mission in 1997.
In response to the November 2005 incident, where the girls were being subjected to gang rape, the Association of Female Lawyers of Liberia (AFELL) decided to frame a legislation according the culprit would get death penalty but the bill was delayed because of the selfishness and perpetuation of male dominance as said by AFELL.
The United Nations has developed procedures to curb sexual abuse by peacekeepers, but the measures are not being put into force because of a deep-rooted culture of sexual permissiveness that has plagued its far-flung peacekeeping operations over the last 13 years.
What could be done?
Since, the UN personnel do not come under the jurisdiction of the nation where they are serving, it becomes easy for them to go scot-free. Therefore, certain legislation should be framed according to which, they become accountable to the nation where they commit such kinds of wicked deeds.
Projects such as safeguarding of children and ensuring health care must be initiated. The complainants should be provided with full support and assistance.
In order to put the approach into practice a common funding system has to be established in all the required nations free from any kind of prejudice.
Reviewing of the policy statements and all other inclusive plans after a regular gap of time, let’s say, after every eighteen months should be included.
