'Oral Sex water': Allegations of abuse against soldiers and UN officials

Most complaints come from African countries, but there are cases in places like Germany

"A girl of seven years, told us he did oral sex on French soldiers in exchange for a bottle of water and a packet of biscuits."

The child's report cited above is part of the many allegations of sexual crimes committed by soldiers and UN officials in recent years. The testimony was recorded by members of the Human Rights Commission of the organization, who disclosed this and other cases in a statement prepared in January.

On Friday, a report was issued as part of a new policy of "naming and shaming" those responsible. The UN adopted this strategy after the scandal involving the abuse of children and adolescents by his soldiers in the Central African Republic last year.

The document, presented by the Secretary General of the organization, Ban Ki-moon, lists 99 new complaints of sexual abuse by soldiers and employees of the organization in international missions in 2015, reflecting an increase in relation to the 80 cases recorded in 2014.

Of the 99 cases reported in 2015, 69 were abuses committed by soldiers in peacekeeping missions and 30 UN employees in other sectors.



There were also accusations in countries like Haiti, ravaged by conflict and earthquake

And for the first time was released the list of countries where the complaints occurred: Germany, Burundi, Ghana, Senegal, Slovakia, Madagascar, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Tanzania, Niger, Moldova, Togo, South Africa , Benin, Nigeria and Gabon.

Also complaints were made against officials of several European countries and Canada. Most abuses occurred in Africa, especially in the Central African Republic. There were also allegations of sexual exploitation in Haiti.

The report, however, was criticized by the NGO Code Blue, which monitors complaints against soldiers - the "blue helmets" - and UN officials.

"What the UN did just in front of more than 1000 complaints of sexual abuse against its employees since 2007? Under the mask that takes some action, what really exists is inertia," the NGO said in a statement.

attacks
The UN report calls for the countries of the accused judge the culprits in their courts and the creation of a bank of DNA samples of his soldiers to facilitate criminal prosecutions.



The NGO Code Blue accused the UN of inertia and of living in a "parallel universe of bureaucracy"

But in addition to these recommendations, little has changed in places where the agency operates.

an organization that defends human rights researchers Human Rights Watch, who visited the Central African Republic, reported last month to rape or sexual abuse of at least eight women and girls.

According to the NGO, the attacks occurred between October and December 2015, over a year after the child abuse scandal outbreak by French soldiers in that same country.

A 14 year old spoke to Human Rights Watch:

"I passed the base of Minusca (the UN mission in the country) at the airport when they attacked me. The soldiers were armed. One held my arms while another took off my clothes. They threw me in a pasture, and while one was holding me, another raped me. "

Another 18-year-old said she was raped when she was ordering food at the UN soldiers based in the Democratic Republic of Congo.



Anders Kompass has been temporarily suspended from his post at the UN after leaking documents

"Three armed men threw themselves on me and said they would kill me if I denounce them. They raped me," said the young woman.

Information leakage
In December 2015, an independent panel accused the UN of gross negligence in dealing with allegations of sexual abuse by soldiers and employees in their missions.

The panel criticized the very fact that the UN does not take action on complaints of a catalog, especially sexual exploitation by French soldiers in the Central African Republic.

General Romeo Dallaire, former commander of the organization's troops in Rwanda during the genocide in 1994, said in 2015 that the child abuse allegations in the Central African Republic caused him disgust.

"The case goes completely against the alleged reason why the troops are sent to the peace mission in the field," he said.

The accusations of inertia against the UN only reached the international press after revelations of an employee of the organization, Anders Kompass, who, frustrated at the lack of action of the institution, leaked a confidential report on abuse allegations and gave the promoters of France .

Reviews and bureaucracy
The NGO Code Blue also criticized the expert committee appointed by the United Nations to improve its performance in the face of abuse allegations.

According to the NGO, the committee is formed by the same individuals who held positions of responsibility when the above violations were revealed.

"In the parallel universe of the UN bureaucracy, the same characters who played an active role in the failure of the (mission in) Central African Republic now oversee the changes to improve the situation. When the foxes are in charge of the hen, the hen is doomed" said the Code Blue.

The NGO also noted in its press release the words of the independent panel held after the scandal in the African country.

"The fact that the problem persists in spite of numerous reports of experts appointed by the UN in the past decade, only serves to increase the perception that the UN is more concerned with rhetoric than action."