Saturday, May 30, 2015

Child sex abuse claims shake UN as revelations continue...

The boys said they approached the French soldiers because they were hungry. Some were so young that they didn't quite understand the acts the soldiers demanded in return. One boy, 8 or 9 years old, said he did it several times to the same soldier, "until one day an older kid saw him and told him what he was doing was bad."

Another boy, 9, said he thought the soldiers had been urinating.

United Nations investigators heard such stories of sexual abuse from several boys in May and June 2014 in Central African Republic, where French soldiers were protecting a sprawling displaced persons camp in the conflict-torn capital, Bangui.

One year later, revelations about how the U.N. handled the boys' accounts have horrified people both inside and outside the world body. Statements marked "strictly confidential" have shown that its top human rights officials failed to follow up for several months on the allegations their own office had collected.

 No arrests have been announced, and it's not clear where the accused soldiers, who were supporting a U.N. peacekeeping force, are now. The U.N. seems unable to say when the abuses stopped, or how long it continued to investigate. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. U.N. official accuses France of delays in child sexual abuse case...
  2. UN Peacekeepers: defenders of law or felons?
  3. ‘Horribly possible’: More child-rape cases by peacekeepers could emerge
  4. France investigates accusations that its soldiers raped children in Central...
  5. UN aid worker suspended for leaking report on child abuse by French troops...
  6. Pakistan UN peacekeepers jailed for Haiti sex abuse...
  7. 51 Indian soldiers accused of rape while peace-keeping in the Congo...
  8. UN soldiers raping 18-year-old boy in Haiti...

No comments:

Post a Comment