The Washington Post reports on the massive amount of sexual abuse and fraud among UN peacekeepers in the Congo:
The 34-page report, which was obtained by The Washington Post, accuses U.N. peacekeepers from Morocco, Pakistan and Nepal of seeking to obstruct U.N. efforts to investigate a sexual abuse scandal that has damaged the United Nations’ standing in Congo.
The report documents 68 cases of alleged rape, prostitution and pedophilia by U.N. peacekeepers from Pakistan, Uruguay, Morocco, Tunisia, South Africa and Nepal. U.N. officials say they have uncovered more than 150 allegations of sexual misconduct throughout the country as part of a widening investigation into sexual abuse by U.N. personnel that has plagued the United Nations’ largest peacekeeping mission, U.N. officials said.
“Sexual exploitation and abuse, particularly prostitution of minors, is widespread and long-standing,” says a draft of the internal July report, which has not previously been made public. “Moreover, all of the major contingents appear to be implicated.”
As Ed Morrissey notes, the UN has no enforcement powers to punish these abuses. The UN has been stonewalling on doing anything, and likely nothing will be done about these crimes.
Had the US done things like this, it would be splashed over every paper. Will those who demanded that Donald Rumsfeld resign do the same for Kofi Annan? Unlike Rumsfeld, Annan has not been willing to ensure that those who committed these crimes are called to account. There are no trials for UN peacekeepers accused of raping young Congolese girls. There are few if any journalists digging into the story and trying to determine what really went on.
So long as the UN remains an untouchable organization and Kofi Annan remins the secular Pope of the transnationalist movement, there will be no reform, and these abuses will continue. How many more innocent victims of the unaccountable UN bureaucracy will happen because no one has the guts to confront the UN and demand accountability. How many more Rwandas? How many more Srebrenicas? How many more must die in Darfur? How many more tyrannies are being propped up with UN blood money in violation of every principle of human rights and international law? How many more children will be victimized by the people who are supposed to be protecting them?
Sadly, thanks to the untouchability of the UN, many, many more.
Unlike Rumsfeld, Annan has not been willing to ensure that those who committed these crimes are called to account.
I’m sorry, in what sense has Rumsfeld been calling anyone to account? Certainly not himself, and certainly not anyone responsible for the pattern of abuse at Abu Graib and other areas. Certainly not the soldiers involved, who got slap-on-the-wrist sentences and were allowed to remain in uniform.
In fact the only people I can think of that have been “called to account” about this is the so-called “liberal media” that, for once, actually did their damn jobs by bringing these outrages to the forefront.
What????? Rumsfeld calling people to account?? Where are you getting your news from? The stuff we have been doing to people is horrible, and the only “calling to account” I’ve seen is cutting their benefits and awarding the people at the top Medals of Honor.