Red Tape Hampering U.N. Peacekeeping Reform Stewart Stogel March 2, 2006 Newsmax Original Source: http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/3/2/94735.shtml Failure to act on this matter will have profound implications for both existing and potential future peacekeeping missions. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton gave this warning to members of the U.N. Security Council as they met recently to discuss the latest reports of sexual abuse by U.N. peacekeeping troops and the world body's efforts to address the widening problem. The conduct of field personnel comes amidst a growing investigation into the procurement operations of the U.N.'s Dept. of Peacekeeping Affairs by the U.S. Dept. of Justice. DOJ is investigating allegations that more than $250 million may have been embezzled or misappropriated by the U.N.'s peacekeeping department. The peacekeeping scandal comes on top of the multi-billion dollar embezzlement in the U.N.'s Iraq Oil-for-Food program. Earlier this year, U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan, suspended (with pay) several officials, including procurement chief Andrew Toh, who are alleged to be the targets of several investigations, in addition to the DOJ inquiry. U.N. staff union officials speaking on background, have told NewsMax that the suspended U.N. personnel have been advised to retain independent legal counsel. Though Annan has urged the group to voluntarily cooperate with U.S. authorities, NewsMax has learned that the group may invoke functional immunity to avoid speaking to the U.S. attorney for the southern district of NY. Functional immunity is the U.N.'s equivalent of diplomatic immunity. It is not clear whether Annan will lift the shield if the U.N. staffers invoke it. The U.S. currently pays almost 30% of the U.N.'s peacekeeping budget. On the topic of sexual misconduct of U.N. field personnel, two senior U.N. officials were allowed to retire in the last year with little or no other disciplinary action. Last summer, Annan's special representative to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, former U.S. diplomat William Swing, retired after ABC News aired a report alleging sexual misconduct by numerous U.N. officials. At first, Swing insisted to correspondent Brian Ross, that the allegations of misconduct were old news and were being addressed. That prompted Ross to play a video tape from a hidden camera showing local prostitutes being herded into clearly marked U.N. vans for evenings on the town. As he viewed the tape, Swing insisted that the incident happened several weeks earlier. Ross in turn notified the U.N. official, that contrary to his belief, the tape was not weeks old, but in fact shot only days earlier. Within six months, Annan edged Swing out, but allegations of abuse in the DRC continue. Swing's departure came on the heels of another retirement by Annan, also involving a former U.S. official. In April of 2005, Annan dismissed his special representative for Liberia, former USAF general, Jacques Klein. Klein, say U.N. officials, had shown poor judgment in engaging in a sexual encounter which impacted on the security of U.N. personnel in war-torn Liberia. Klein, now a professor at Princeton University, has refused to comment on the issue. In both incidents, the U.N. in essence closed the books on the matter, making the two U.S. officials the symbolic fall guys. The Security Council meeting was the latest effort by the White House to push the issue of U.N. reform into the field, beyond the executive offices. The U.N. has steadfastly refused to initiate a review process to screen field personnel for peacekeeping assignments. It prefers to leave that process to the nations contributing troops. That process was reaffirmed in mid-2005 by then U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard, despite the well publicized fiasco of Bulgarian peacekeeping troops in Cambodia. In the late 1980's into the early 1990's, the Bulgarian government was reported to have suited up prison inmates in military uniforms and sent on peacekeeping assignments in war ravaged Cambodia. That move was taken when regular Bulgarian troops refused the postings to the embattled Southeast Asian nation. Member states are financially compensated for troop contributions by the U.N. Bulgaria, it was reported, needed the hard currency. Upon arrival, the Bulgarians were reported to have been involved in several rapes and abductions of local women and children. That prompted the rebel Khmer Rouge to capture and summarily execute several of the Bulgarians believed to have been involved in the incidents. More than a decade later, the U.N.'s selection system remains essentially unchanged. And now, reports of locals being abused and raped in the Darfur region of the east African nation of Sudan abound. In an effort to mitigate growing pressure, Annan requested that Jordan's U.N. ambassador Prince Zeid al Hussein head an investigation into the issue of sexual abuse and U.N. peacekeepers. According to U.S. ambassador John Bolton, To date, the U.N. investigated 295 personnel, resulting in 137 repatriations and 16 dismissals of soldiers, commanders, police and U.N. staff ... The ‘boys will be boys' attitude, which too long has pervaded peacekeeping operations, must correctly be met with a zero tolerance policy ... It is time to take this recognition and translate it into decisive without delay. Yet, Prince Zeid told reporters outside the Council chamber that it could take as long as four years to effectively implement the changes called for by the U.S. ambassador. That brought a terse Bolton retort. We cannot wait months and years while more women are raped and children are exploited and the reputation of U.N. peacekeepers continue to decline. The debate comes as the United Nations begins the process to select a new secretary-general. Kofi Annan will end his second five-year term on December 31, 2006. The U.N. veteran will not seek an unprecedented third term. While his successor is expected to come from an Asian country, no clear front runner has yet emerged.