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Friday, February 11, 2005

U.N. Sex Crimes in Congo

I was getting ready for work today and heard this story as I was getting dresses and was just stunned. Especially when I heard the women and young girls were having sex with the UN workers for eggs and jars of peanut butter just to survive. Aren't they supposed to be the helpers and peacekeepers? There are now hundreds of babies left in the congo who have been fathered by the UN workers. When they move on to their next assignment, they of course leave the kids behind.




Widespread allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse of Congolese women, boys and girls have been made against U.N. personnel who were sent to help and protect them — despite a so-called zero tolerance policy touted by the United Nations toward such behavior.

The range of sexual abuse includes reported rapes of young Congolese girls by U.N. troops; an Internet pedophile ring run from Congo by Didier Bourguet, a senior U.N. official from France; a colonel from South Africa accused of molesting his teenage male translators; and estimates of hundreds of underage girls having babies fathered by U.N. soldiers who have been able to simply leave their children and their crimes behind.

Ravaged by decades of civil war, and one of the poorest countries in the world, Congo has relied on the United Nations for both military protection and humanitarian aid.
"The U.N. is there for their protection, so when the protectors become violators, this is particularly egregious," said Anneke Van Woudenberg, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch who investigated the allegations on behalf of her organization. "This is particularly bad."

William Swing, a former U.S. ambassador to Congo who now heads the U.N. peacekeeping mission there, admitted the sexual crimes were a black mark on the United Nations.

"It pains us all," he said. "It's absolutely odious. And we're determined to wipe it out."
But Swing said the problem was just recently brought to his attention, and that only a small percentage of the 11,000 U.N. personnel in Congo were involved.

"A few people have managed to basically cause disgrace for the mission and for the U.N., and that's why we're determined to conquer it. I have sent a dozen home," Swing said. But human rights investigators have reported a far wider, even systemic problem, recording more than 150 allegations against U.N. employees in Congo.
And there is what human rights investigators have called "survival sex."

"We have heard cases where they have traded eggs for sex or bread for sex or a jar of peanut butter for sex," said Van Woudenberg. "These are not people who have very much. So they hang around the outskirts of these U.N. bases in order to try and get a handout, a little food. Maybe they can sell some bananas or some peanuts. And it has become not uncommon that peacekeepers invite these girls in — and of course the younger the better, because there's less chance that they will be infected by HIV/AIDS."
Full story here.

Here is the leader of the porn ring who was operating out of france.

Didier Bourgeut

What I do is kick them in the pants with a diamond buckled shoe!

~~Aileen Mehle~~

2 Broken Heels:

Anonymous said...

Girl, you always find stories that make me wonder what this world is coming to!! *deep sigh*

My Shoes said...

you know nzyne i did not really pay that close attention to the background...i did notice it was floral but now that you point it out...that is very strange. laniza...it seems to get worse each day.