UN Troops Held in Arua Over Sex Scandal
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The Monitor (Kampala)
April 12, 2005
Posted to the web April 11, 2005
Tabu Butagira
Arua
Police in Arua have arrested two United Nations' peacekeepers from DR Congo on charges of sexual abuse.
Mr Ticlak BDR Bohara, 39, and Tes Bohador, 40, both Nepalese citizens, were accused of sexually abusing a 19-year old Lugbara girl in Arua town.
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They were released after interrogation.
They were part of a group of five Monuc who wanted to have sex with the same girl.
There was information that the suspects wanted to take pictures of the girl in various sexual postures.
Police picked Bohara and Bohador from Paradise Lodge on Transport Road at around 5.20pm on Sunday after the lodge proprietor Dr Joram Ajeani alerted the police.
Ajeani told The Monitor that he alerted the police because he had been embarrassed by the two men's conduct.
"I just had to call the police once I was informed of what was happening in one of the rooms of my lodge," he said.
An eyewitness, Mr Francis Dada Abaza, who had been at the lodge playing pool game when the events happened, said the Monuc peacekeepers arrived at about 1pm.
They allegedly first approached a deaf woman and bought chicken and chips for her, but she later rejected their sexual advances.
The girl told The Monitor at Arua Central Police Station that she had been linked to the UN peacekeepers by one of the lodge female workers who picked her from a nearby video hall where she had been watching a movie.
The woman allegedly told her that one of her relatives wanted to see her at the lodge.
"When I arrived, the man (one of the UN staff) started smooching me and asking me to have sex with him for Shs20,000. When he finished the first round, the second man entered and promised to pay me dollars," the girl said.
"Before the third one could come in, the first two men who had slept with me wanted to pay Shs50,00 all together and I refused," she said.
As the news of the sex scandal rocked the area, dozens of the town dwellers raging with vengeance rushed to Paradise Lodge to punish the suspects, but were locked out.
Only journalists and policemen were allowed in.
The charging crowd was dispersed by 999 patrol police who took away the UN staff.
Arua District Police Commander, Mr James Taarushokye, questioned the UN staff at his office in the presence of their bosses, who had come from Aru town in DR Congo.
Taarushokye told journalists on Monday that he could not detain the UN men because the girl had consented and she was of majority age.
"The girl told me she accepted to have sex with the (Monuc) men because she wanted money. She is above 19 years of age," he said.
He said the UN men could also not be charged with taking nude pictures of their sex partners for commercial gain because the girl denied she had been photographed in lewd sexual postures.
Police arrested the accused with three cameras, but none of the films was printed to establish the content.
Ajeani reportedly asked for a Shs250,000 fine from the UN staff for "abusing his lodge" although he said on Monday that he was only given Shs50,000. Sources said the girl was paid Shs40,000.
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This is the first time the UN peace team is caught in such an act although the town has for sometime been awash with similar reports.
Their sexual escapades are not new in West Nile nor DR Congo. Authorities in Nebbi district recently arrested and prosecuted several DRC's UN peacekeepers of Bangladesh origin for sexually abusing teenage girls.
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