The United Nations has taken a hammering in recent years. Some of it has been deserved, some not. Remember the "Oil for Food" scandal?
Now the UN has revealed an even more sordid scandal, the sexual crimes of its peacekeepers. Here are excerpts from the account in The Independent:
"Nearly 200 United Nations peacekeepers have been disciplined in the past three years for sex offences ranging from rape to assaults on minors, the UN has admitted. Yet none appears to have been prosecuted.
"Senior UN officials said on Friday that 319 soldiers, police or civilians serving on missions have been investigated for sexual misconduct over the past three years, and 180 have been dismissed or repatriated.
"These numbers do not include allegations levelled at members of the UN's own staff. According to an internal UN report, these total 91, including 13 alleged to have had sex with minors, 15 who gave jobs in return for sex, 17 who had sex with prostitutes, five who face allegations of rape and one person who is alleged to have committed sexual assault."
These outrages have to be kept in perspective. Approximately 200,000 peacekeepers rotate into UN missions each year and the UN sometimes has to settle for what it can get. They're not all going to be like Canadians or Swedes.
Still, the UN peacekeeping effort is an essential asset, critical even, in the struggle for world peace. Abuses such as these simply can't be tolerated. It's not good enough to send offenders home, they need to be prosecuted fully, effectively and efficiently. The United Nations must assure the world that it has a "zero tolerance" policy on sexual crimes. Nothing less will do.
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