UN Peacekeepers Sexually Abused Congolese Girls

breakingnews.ie ^ | 01/07/2005 | breakingnews

[kcar]

Who else should I hold accountable for bowing obsequiously toward this corrupt and rotten world scam-artist? Bush is POTUS, with both houses of Congress and a favorable Supreme Court and the backing of the people. He chose to genuflect. I don't.

[finnigan2]

This UN comedy has been going on for about eight years now, starting with a force of 500 they have, through successive resolutions, worked the military contingent up to 16,800 plus an unspecified number of "civilian" peacekeepers. The current UN budget is about 3/4 of a billion dollars a year with a list of about 25 countries contributing personnel - most of them from other African countries. In short, the Congo peace project has turned into a long term make work project for underemployed UN apparatchik's, another source of "jobs for the boys" and justification for taking expensive "fact finding" holiday luxury travel junkets to Africa at taxpayers expense.
I suspect that the rapists and kiddie diddler's must be from the UN African country contingents because from what I've heard from friends who have spent time in these parts of Africa, the hygiene conditions would dissuade most Europeans from close fraternization with the local females.

[It's me]

It was clear that the investigation did not act as a deterrent for some of the troops, perhaps because they had not been made aware of the severe penalties for engaging in such conduct, ...

...and with the young Congolese men who facilitated the encounters,...

What the heck!

[It's me]

Oh sure, I feel real safe with the "World's Army"!

[SauronOfMordor]

Realisticly speaking, the article's title is trying to paint a picture of forcible rape, while the actual text shows the situation was actually one of girls (some underage) trying to survive through prostitution, and the UN troops securing sex by sharing their rations and pay.

The article noted that often the identification of the troops involved was difficult because it was too dark. If it's too dark to identify the guy, then how was the trooper supposed to be able to accurately tell the age of the hooker?

I dislike the UN as much as anybody here, but much of this is a hit job. Troops far away from home will tend to try to hook up with the local girls unless kept on a very tight leash.

[kcar]

Well, how would we know if this piece is a "hit job" if the there is no mechanism to call the UN into account? Everything and anything can just be dismissed as political. For US soldiers, nothing can be dismissed. Even allegations proven totally false are repeated as though refutations were never advanced.

Next, if your whole mission is to provide humanitarian aid obtained from other people's funds, requiring sex in exchange, or even appearing to, is hardly professional. Hopefully this isn't something that the US military would condone. Sexual bribery of underage girls is not the same as "hooking up" with the locals.