UN investigator: Troops from armies that abuse, torture should not be peacekeepers

July 28, 2007
PR Insider
Original Source: http://www.pr-inside.com/print187557.htm
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Soldiers from countries whose armies are suspected of engaging in torture or other abuse should not be considered for peacekeeping duty, the U.N.'s chief anti-torture investigator says.
U.N. special rapporteur Manfred Nowak said in an interview for Monday's editions of the Austrian news magazine Profil that the world body's standards for selecting peacekeepers are too low, and suggested it should reconsider forming its own professional standing army.
Concerns about the quality, training and ethics of soldiers are growing as developing nations with questionable human rights records increasingly are tapped for troops for international peacekeeping operations, Nowak said.
«The criteria are not very high,» he told Profil, which released excerpts of the interview on Saturday. «The U.N. must impose stricter standards in recruiting soldiers.
As an example, Nowak pointed to soldiers from Morocco, who are alleged to have abused children in Ivory Coast.
The U.N. has said its own investigation «revealed serious allegations of widespread sexual exploitation and abuse» by Moroccan peacekeepers in the West African country, where about 9,000 U.N. troops have been deployed since 2003 to help prevent all-out civil war.
Last week, a 730-member battalion of Moroccan troops was confined to its barracks in the northern Ivorian city of Bouake shortly after the U.N. began receiving allegations of the abuse of minors there. U.N. spokeswoman Margherita Amodeo said only one unit of the battalion was allegedly involved.
The allegations are the first of their kind against the U.N. mission in Ivory Coast, though U.N. officials have said that more than 300 members of U.N. peacekeeping missions around the world have been investigated for sexual exploitation and abuse over the past three years in nations including Congo, Cambodia and Haiti.
Nowak also highlighted Nepal, where he alleged there is «systematic» torture.
He told Profil he would recommend that «as long as the military in Nepal tortures, no (Nepalese) troops should be consulted for peacekeeping missions.