Do you suppose this will provoke the same kind of outrage and press
exposure as the Abu Ghraib scandal? There were calls for Rumsfeld's
resignation when the Abu Ghraib scandal broke, might there be similar
calls for Kofi Annan's resignation? It will be interesting to watch this
pan out.
PD'S
*Sex for Food*
The Wall Street Journal, December 29, 2004; Page A8
Two years after the charges first surfaced, Kofi Annan has finally
admitted that U.N. peacekeeping troops sexually abused war refugees
in the Democratic Republic of Congo. "I am really shocked by these
accusations," the United Nations Secretary-General told reporters
last week.
He shouldn't be. Allegations of sex crimes committed by U.N. staff
and troops date back at least a decade and span operations on three
continents, in places like Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Liberia and
Cambodia. But rather than showing the kind of "zero tolerance"
toward sexual crimes that Mr. Annan now promises, the U.N. has
treated such instances with cavalier nonchalance.
In Congo, some 150 cases are under investigation. The charges range
from rape, in which some victims were children, to sexual
exploitation. In some cases, women and young girls have been coaxed
into sex in exchange for essential food items. A French U.N. staffer
was arrested for raping underage girls and taking digital pictures
of them. He has been sent back home where he will stand trial.
U.N. officials reportedly are worried that if these pictures and
other rape videos allegedly shot by U.N. troops find their way into
the media, it could become the U.N.'s "Abu Ghraib." The difference,
of course, is that the abuses in Iraq came quickly to light through
the chain of command and were immediately prosecuted by the U.S.
military. In contrast, the U.N. is investigating the cases in Congo
only after much delay and even now is unwilling to "name and shame"
the countries whose soldiers committed these crimes.
