wakeupcall
11-02-2007, 09:43 PM
12-22) 04:00 PDT Leogane, Haiti -- Allegations that U.N. peacekeepers committed sexual crimes have surfaced here at a time when similar scandals have sullied the international organization's reputation in other parts of the world.
They are also adding to the criticism of the U.N. mission in Haiti that began in June 2004 to stabilize the country after the ouster of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Many residents accuse the peacekeepers of doing little to stop crime and fight poverty.
So far the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti has investigated 34 other cases of alleged sexual abuse and exploitation -- for example, paying for sex or consensual sex with a minor. Natasha, whose real name is being withheld for her security, says she was raped by a Sri Lankan peacekeeper in the quiet city of Leogane, Haiti, an hour west of Port-au-Prince, in early 2005, when she was 15. Because of the stigma attached to rape in Haiti, her mother forbade her from making a complaint until now, nearly two years later, she said.
"I thought they came for peace, not war," said Natasha. "I thought they came to protect us. I never thought they could abuse me in this way."
Until now, however, there has been no substantiation of Natasha's allegation, nor of other rape charges leveled against U.N. peacekeepers in Haiti. One case of sexual exploitation has been substantiated by the mission, which has more than 6,600 soldiers predominantly from Latin America but with contingents from Jordan, Sri Lanka and Nepal, and 1,700 police officers from about three dozen countries, including the United States and Canada.
U.N. spokesman David Wimhurst said an investigation probably could not prove or disprove Natasha's allegations at this point. "Time has gone by, and the longer time goes by in these cases, the more difficult it is to get the evidence," he said.
The United Nations has been rocked in recent years by a series of sexual abuse scandals involving peacekeepers.
Since 2004, the United Nations has investigated 319 peacekeepers, in missions around the globe, for sexual abuse or exploitation, resulting in the repatriation of 144 military personnel, 17 police officers and 18 civilian officials, according to U.N. secretary-general's office. The United Nations, which has 16 peacekeeping operations around the world involving more than 80,000 security forces representing 112 countries, has no authority to punish wrongdoers, and can only ask that their home countries do so.
In September 2004, a 15-year-old Haitian girl accused a Brazilian peacekeeper of raping her inside a U.N. naval base. Wimhurst says the case was exhaustively investigated, but no evidence was found to substantiate the girl's allegations. Her lawyer condemned the probe as a whitewash, complaining that the United Nations never gave him or his client the final report.
In March 2005, another U.N. investigation concluded that two Pakistani riot police officers had paid for sexual relations with a woman in the city of Gonaives. They were removed from Haiti, dismissed from the police force and sentenced to one year in prison by the Pakistani government, according to Wimhurst.
"We take it very seriously. We investigate everything that comes to our attention," he said. "Clearly, the vast majority of our people are behaving themselves. And indeed, since some of these allegations don't pan out. I would say, it's not a huge problem."
But rights activists say that some victims are either too afraid or too intimidated by the U.N. bureaucracy to come forward.
"There are likely many more cases," said Polin Aleandre, a social worker who says five street girls ages 9 to 13 were offered money to perform oral sex by U.N. peacekeepers in front of the national palace. The girls all refused, Aleandre said. "Sex has a huge stigma in Haiti, and rape even more so. People don't talk about it at all."
Human rights groups blame the arrival of U.N. missions in Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s with fueling a boom in prostitution and human trafficking. In 2004, more than 150 U.N. peacekeepers in the Republic of Congo were alleged to have raped women or bought sex with food, jobs and small sums of money.
In response, outgoing U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan publicly admitted to the failure to stop sexual misconduct, and began an internal effort to combat the problem. In his last speech dedicated to the issue of sexual abuse before stepping down at the end of the month, Annan lamented "an overall climate that makes it difficult to report and expose abuses," and proposed a new program for countries whose peacekeepers engage in abuse to pay compensation to victims.
In Haiti, incoming peacekeepers are instructed about the zero-tolerance policy for sexual abuse and exploitation. A civilian official is assigned to deal with sexual misconduct complaints brought by the public against U.N. troops.
"We have a very strong deterrent program in place, and that's really where we have to put all our effort," said Wimhurst. "Some people might do this anyway, but the very few who do tarnish the rest who behave correctly."
But there appears to have been less effort put into informing the public about its rights regarding possible sexual abuse and exploitation.
In Leogane, a relatively peaceful city that has not suffered armed conflict since the U.N. forces arrived, there is no official agency set up to handle complaints. In the capital of Port-au-Prince, the office dealing with sexual abuse complaints was established in July 2005, more than a year after the mission began -- and several months after Natasha says she was raped.
Natasha says she hopes the U.N. mission will help her leave Leogane. A former teacher said she was the top student in her eighth-grade class before dropping out after the alleged rape, and Natasha says she wants to go to school somewhere else. People who know Natasha said she has been tormented by neighbors and former classmates who call her "Madame MINUSTAH." That is the acronym by which the peacekeeping mission here is known -- short for United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti.
Natasha says she remains distressed by the sight of the U.N. peacekeepers.
"Even now, whenever I see a MINUSTAH soldier, I feel uncomfortable" she said. "I fear them and at the same time I hate them."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/22/MNGRLN47IA1.DTL
They are also adding to the criticism of the U.N. mission in Haiti that began in June 2004 to stabilize the country after the ouster of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Many residents accuse the peacekeepers of doing little to stop crime and fight poverty.
So far the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti has investigated 34 other cases of alleged sexual abuse and exploitation -- for example, paying for sex or consensual sex with a minor. Natasha, whose real name is being withheld for her security, says she was raped by a Sri Lankan peacekeeper in the quiet city of Leogane, Haiti, an hour west of Port-au-Prince, in early 2005, when she was 15. Because of the stigma attached to rape in Haiti, her mother forbade her from making a complaint until now, nearly two years later, she said.
"I thought they came for peace, not war," said Natasha. "I thought they came to protect us. I never thought they could abuse me in this way."
Until now, however, there has been no substantiation of Natasha's allegation, nor of other rape charges leveled against U.N. peacekeepers in Haiti. One case of sexual exploitation has been substantiated by the mission, which has more than 6,600 soldiers predominantly from Latin America but with contingents from Jordan, Sri Lanka and Nepal, and 1,700 police officers from about three dozen countries, including the United States and Canada.
U.N. spokesman David Wimhurst said an investigation probably could not prove or disprove Natasha's allegations at this point. "Time has gone by, and the longer time goes by in these cases, the more difficult it is to get the evidence," he said.
The United Nations has been rocked in recent years by a series of sexual abuse scandals involving peacekeepers.
Since 2004, the United Nations has investigated 319 peacekeepers, in missions around the globe, for sexual abuse or exploitation, resulting in the repatriation of 144 military personnel, 17 police officers and 18 civilian officials, according to U.N. secretary-general's office. The United Nations, which has 16 peacekeeping operations around the world involving more than 80,000 security forces representing 112 countries, has no authority to punish wrongdoers, and can only ask that their home countries do so.
In September 2004, a 15-year-old Haitian girl accused a Brazilian peacekeeper of raping her inside a U.N. naval base. Wimhurst says the case was exhaustively investigated, but no evidence was found to substantiate the girl's allegations. Her lawyer condemned the probe as a whitewash, complaining that the United Nations never gave him or his client the final report.
In March 2005, another U.N. investigation concluded that two Pakistani riot police officers had paid for sexual relations with a woman in the city of Gonaives. They were removed from Haiti, dismissed from the police force and sentenced to one year in prison by the Pakistani government, according to Wimhurst.
"We take it very seriously. We investigate everything that comes to our attention," he said. "Clearly, the vast majority of our people are behaving themselves. And indeed, since some of these allegations don't pan out. I would say, it's not a huge problem."
But rights activists say that some victims are either too afraid or too intimidated by the U.N. bureaucracy to come forward.
"There are likely many more cases," said Polin Aleandre, a social worker who says five street girls ages 9 to 13 were offered money to perform oral sex by U.N. peacekeepers in front of the national palace. The girls all refused, Aleandre said. "Sex has a huge stigma in Haiti, and rape even more so. People don't talk about it at all."
Human rights groups blame the arrival of U.N. missions in Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s with fueling a boom in prostitution and human trafficking. In 2004, more than 150 U.N. peacekeepers in the Republic of Congo were alleged to have raped women or bought sex with food, jobs and small sums of money.
In response, outgoing U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan publicly admitted to the failure to stop sexual misconduct, and began an internal effort to combat the problem. In his last speech dedicated to the issue of sexual abuse before stepping down at the end of the month, Annan lamented "an overall climate that makes it difficult to report and expose abuses," and proposed a new program for countries whose peacekeepers engage in abuse to pay compensation to victims.
In Haiti, incoming peacekeepers are instructed about the zero-tolerance policy for sexual abuse and exploitation. A civilian official is assigned to deal with sexual misconduct complaints brought by the public against U.N. troops.
"We have a very strong deterrent program in place, and that's really where we have to put all our effort," said Wimhurst. "Some people might do this anyway, but the very few who do tarnish the rest who behave correctly."
But there appears to have been less effort put into informing the public about its rights regarding possible sexual abuse and exploitation.
In Leogane, a relatively peaceful city that has not suffered armed conflict since the U.N. forces arrived, there is no official agency set up to handle complaints. In the capital of Port-au-Prince, the office dealing with sexual abuse complaints was established in July 2005, more than a year after the mission began -- and several months after Natasha says she was raped.
Natasha says she hopes the U.N. mission will help her leave Leogane. A former teacher said she was the top student in her eighth-grade class before dropping out after the alleged rape, and Natasha says she wants to go to school somewhere else. People who know Natasha said she has been tormented by neighbors and former classmates who call her "Madame MINUSTAH." That is the acronym by which the peacekeeping mission here is known -- short for United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti.
Natasha says she remains distressed by the sight of the U.N. peacekeepers.
"Even now, whenever I see a MINUSTAH soldier, I feel uncomfortable" she said. "I fear them and at the same time I hate them."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/22/MNGRLN47IA1.DTL