Jordan Prince Wants Errant UN Peacekeepers Punished

By Reuters
March 24, 2005
The New York Times
Original Source: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-un-sex-peacekeepers.html

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Peacekeepers need to be punished for any sexual abuse, their pay docked and a fund set up to assist any women and girls they impregnated, a new U.N. report said on Thursday.
The searing report from Jordan's U.N. ambassador, Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid al-Hussein, recommended an overhaul of a tattered U.N. military system in the world body's 17 peacekeeping operations of some 64,000 personnel.
This was particularly needed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where the United Nations has accused peacekeepers and civilian staff of rape, pedophilia, and enticing hungry children with food or money in exchange for sex.
``The reality of prostitution and other sexual exploitation in a peacekeeping context is profoundly disturbing to many because the United Nations has been mandated to enter into a broken society to help it,'' Zeid wrote after visiting Congo and interviewing officials and victims.
The 41-page report from Zeid, who once served as a U.N. military observer in Bosnia, also recommends that court-martials be held in the country where the offense took place so witnesses could be available.
Zeid was asked by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to do a comprehensive analysis of the abuse and suggest policy changes for civilians and for troops, who can only be punished by their home countries. But such punishment is rare.
He proposed that the 191-member General Assembly approve binding rules that every country contributing troops had to sign that would include prosecutions, setting up funds for victims, especially those with ``peacekeeper babies.''
Zeid acknowledged that distributing condoms to soldiers gave a mixed message. But he said they should be viewed as protection against AIDS and not as a license for sex with prostitutes, girls under 18 or abuse of any kind.
During his interviews, Zeid said some young girls talked of ``rape disguised as prostitution'' -- meaning they were raped first and then given money or food to ``give the rape the appearance of a consensual transaction.''
In 2004, he said 80 allegations of abuse in the Congo had been made against military personnel, 16 against civilians and 9 against U.N. civilian police for a total of 105 accusations. Some 45 percent involved girls or boys under 18 years of age, 31 percent related to adult prostitutes and 13 percent involved rape and assault.
As for the United Nations, he said too many of Annan's strict rules on commercial or forced sex were drafted at various times and were communicated to soldiers in a haphazard ad hoc way, sometimes not even in their mother tongue.
Among his recommendations were:
-- A professional team that would use modern technologies, like DNA and fingerprinting, to investigate sex crimes rather than current overlapping probes, often staffed by ``enthusiastic amateurs.''
-- U.N. civilian staff who violate the rules should be fired and fined, with monies paid into a trust fund for victims and any children born to them.
-- National governments should prosecute peacekeepers. The United Nations should deduct from offending soldiers the daily allowance they receive and put it in a fund for victims, especially those who need child support.
-- U.N. managers and military commanders should be rewarded if they implement policies against sexual abuse. They should be removed from their posts if they do not.
-- A new database should be created to make sure offenders are never deployed again. For soldiers, their home country should report to the secretary-general what action they took within 120 days and until the case is settled.
-- Recreational facilities and more frequent leave should be given to peacekeeping personnel, including a free Internet and subsidized telephone calls.