UK Edition
The UN must smash the culture of impunity that lets peacekeepers get away with child abuse
Three weeks ago, a Canadian AIDS charity published a report containing some stunning allegations. The report stated that UN and French troops in the Central African Republic (CAR) were accused of sexually abusing at least 98 girls. The harrowing details include three girls being tied up and raped. It has been alleged that some abuses were orchestrated by a French Genera,l and that one of victims subsequently died.
These revelations call the presence of French Troops in CAR into question. But they also raise more systemic questions about how the UN investigates and deals with sexual misconduct by the forces it stations in conflict zones – because sadly, this is far from the first time.
Indeed, there is a long documented history of such crimes dating as far back as the 1990s. During the 1991-92 UN mission in Cambodia, accusations of sexual harassment and abuse were rife. Peacekeepers were said to visit brothels so frequently that the number of sex workers during that period rose from 6,000 to over 20,000. This mission was, on balance, named a success.
In 2003, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), peacekeepers stood accused of giving orphans food for sexual “favours”. And in the past decades or two, allegations of sexual misconduct has been reported in nearly all of the 16 countries in which troops are currently or previously stationed: Mozambique, Bosnia, Kosovo, Guinea, Liberia and Haiti, Cambodia, DRC, Sierra Leone, and Somalia.
Like many of these countries, CAR has good reason to need peacekeepers. Decades of instability and violence escalated in 2012 when a coalition of armed, primarily Muslim groups staged an insurgency. In March 2013 they attempted a coup, leading to reprisals by Christian militias, and in April 2014 the UN Security Council began a peacekeeping mission named Minusca, incorporating African Union and French forces.
But it was only shortly after this that allegations of rape and child abuse started to surface. In December 2015, an independent review said the UN's manner of handling those allegations was "seriously flawed", and recommended that it undertake a number of specific reforms. Yet amid all the reports, task forces, press conferences, and declarations of "zero tolerance", this year alone four further cases of sexual abuse have come to light. It is clear that sexual misconduct by peacekeepers is still an endemic problem. More disturbingly, for soldiers who engage in such acts to be held to account remains the exception rather than the rule. Prosecutions are extremely rare.
On April 12, Diane Corner, the deputy head of the UN's mission to CAR, was questioned about all this on the BBC (as was one of the authors of this article) . She naturally provided assurances that the issues, which she relegated to a "minority of UN peacekeepers’", were being dealt with. She insisted that measures to "stomp out abuses" had been put into place, including the rotating out of forces where there is a history of abuse, plus "training’ and "a lot more communication".
Despite this, she only spoke of one conviction, and admitted the UN was reliant on the individual countries who send out peacekeeping troops to bring perpetrators to justice – a process which we know, from decades of abuse, simply does not work. In addition, she acknowledged being uncertain about what impact current measures will have on the occurrence of sexual misconduct within UN peacekeeping forces. There was no mention of the December report, or its recommendations.
It is still unclear how many prosecutions have taken place, how many convictions there have been, the nationalities of those who have been held to account and, critically, exactly what kind of support has been provided to the alleged victims. How many victims of them have been reached? What specific interventions are being provided to them in the short and long term? At what costs, and are they appropriate? What of the victims’ rights to pursue the UN, or the country their abuser originates from? The public remains in the dark.
This isn't good enough. Peacekeepers are sent on our behalf; we should know what they are doing. Ban Ki-Moon. the UN's secretary-general, now only has a few months left in his role (interviews are taking place now to replace him in his role) Is this the legacy he wants to leave? One of impunity? In any other arena he would have been sacked by now, or forced to resign.
Don't forget that the overwhelming majority of the reported victims in CAR have been children. Some young girls have been ostracised by their community as a result of the sexual violence they have experienced. The stigma these girls have faced and the culture of impunity which surrounds UN abuses of power must be addressed urgently. After all, we would never tolerate these injustices if the majority of the children involved were little blonde girls with blue eyes. That such vile abuses of power continue to happen, often perpetrated by powerful western men who consider themselves guardians of civilisation, testifies to the ways in which even "peacekeeping" can display the same dehumanising disregard which drove colonial endeavours.
We are aware and glad that some "peacekeepers" are already being put to trial for abuses; their victims need justice. We are also aware that, just like with the International Criminal Court, those put on trial are so far only from developing countries. International bodies cannot privilege white European countries and keep their credibility.
That is why we have set up a petition to Ban Ki-Moon. We are asking:
- That the recommendations from the report of Decemeber 2015 be put into practice
- That the French government withdraws all its troops from the CAR and investigates and prosecutes the perpetrators of these horrific abuses
- That the victims receive proper care and support, and that further abuse is prevented
Why should the French troops be recalled? Firstly because it is they who are reported to have carried out the most recent abuses – abuses said to have occurred with the active participation of a general. If the upper echelons of the mission are masterminding these atrocities, it gives free reign to lower ranks to treat the local population with contempt. Secondly because France is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, and their removal from a mission would be a powerful signal to other UN peacekeeping forces that the UN will no longer tolerate abuse. Finally, given reports of intimidation, of interference with investigations, and the enormous power differentials between the victims and the perpetrators, we are concerned that justice cannot be served if French troops are still on the ground. We are not requesting the removal of all peacekeeping operations, but would ideally like to see more investment and support for the local forces – though we accept this is primarily an issue for the people of CAR to determine.
The most important thing is that these issues are addressed with complete transparency. if you believe in holding to account those who enforce peace in our names, please sign the petition.
Finally, we are asking for complete transparency in terms of how the issues are being addressed. Please sign the petition.
Samantha Asumadu is a documentary filmmaker and the founder of Media Diversified. Guilaine Kinouani is a writer and equality consultant.