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UNITED Nations peacekeepers have abandoned at least 20 babies fathered with poverty-stricken Timorese women. A UN investigation has also uncovered a culture of cover-up, in which babies born to peacekeepers and sex crimes committed by UN staff in the past seven years have been kept secret because of a "fear of shame and embarrassment' in the deeply religious country. The findings will shock the UN bureaucracy as it prepares to boost by thousands its peacekeeping force in East Timor. A report on the investigation, obtained by The Age, recommends that a policy of zero tolerance of sexual misconduct be enforced...

A Senate measure that would cut by millions the United States' share of U.N. peacekeeping costs is a step in the right direction. But it doesn't go far enough. Amid widespread charges of rape, child abuse and assorted sexual perversions by U.N. peacekeepers, the world body needs its feet held to the fire. Continuing the funding stream, albeit at a lower percentage, isn't going to do it.

U.N. SEX SCANDAL: HEADS ARE STARTING TO ROLL  By Michelle Malkin   ·   February 28, 2005 10:08 PM  Reuters reports on a possible resignation in the wake of the U.N. Congo peacekeepers/predators crisis: UNITED NATIONS, Feb 28 (Reuters) - The U.N. representative in the Congo, American William Lacy Swing, may soon resign his post following allegations of widespread sexual abuse by peacekeepers, diplomats said on Monday. Swing, due in New York on Thursday to confer with Secretary-General Kofi Annan, is expected to submit his resignation then or when he returns to the Congo, the envoys said.American sources said Swing, a...

WASHINGTON, Feb 26 (Reuters) U.N. officials fear the sex-abuse scandal among peacekeepers in Africa is far more widespread and appears to be a problem in each of the global body's 16 missions around the world. As the world body seeks to crack down on the abuse, it could bar countries from missions if they fail to prosecute offenders, even though the U.N. is hard-pressed to find contributing nations, the officials said yesterday. Rocked by widespread abuse of women and girls, including gang rape, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the United Nations also has found sexual exploitation cases in...

Calls for Kofi Annan to resign his post as secretary-general of the United Nations continue to grow. The oil-for-food scandal expands with each new disclosure, and the once-secret sex scandals are now public knowledge. Annan's resignation, however, will not cure these ills; it will only mask the real problems, while providing the appearance of reform. Were Kofi to step down, U.N. critics would celebrate their victory, and the institution would go about selecting a new person to correct all the problems that have come to light. The spotlight would be focused on the new secretary-general, who would get a pass...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Sexual abuse of girls by U.N. peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was widespread and ongoing despite many revelations and probes, the U.N. watchdog agency reported on Friday.   The peacekeepers over the last year have been accused of gang rapes, sexual harassment and bribing children as young as 12 or 13 with eggs, milk and a few dollars to have sex in bushes, on the bare ground or under mango trees. The new report by the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) concentrates on Bunia, in the eastern part of the Congo,...

UN peacekeepers in Congo sexually abused and exploited women and girls, some as young as 13, according to a report released by a UN watchdog today. Sexual contact between peacekeepers and Congolese women and girls occurred regularly, usually in exchange for food or small sums of money, an investigation by the Office of Internal Oversight Services found. The problems were “serious and ongoing” and it was ”disturbing” that there was no deterrence or protection programme, the report said by the UN oversight agency said. Sexual activities continued even while the investigation was going on, the OIOS found, noting that freshly...

UNITED NATIONS — U.N. peacekeepers in Congo sexually abused and exploited women and girls, some as young as 13, according to a report released by a U.N. watchdog agency Friday. Peacekeepers regularly had sex with Congolese women and girls, usually in exchange for food or small sums of money, an investigation by the Office of Internal Oversight Services found. "We have had and continue to have a serious problem of sexual exploitation and abuse," said William Lacy Swing, the secretary-general's special representative to Congo, said Friday at a news conference. "We are shocked by it, we are outraged, we are...

A SENIOR United Nations official is demanding that her colleagues involved in the sex trade in Bosnia should be stripped of their immunity and prosecuted. Madeleine Rees, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Bosnia, has broken ranks to demand that UN officials, international peacekeepers and police who are involved in sex crimes be brought to justice in their home countries. Speaking exclusively to Scotland on Sunday, the British lawyer has also launched an outspoken attack on her former boss. She accuses Jacques Paul Klein, the former head of the UN Mission in Bosnia, of not taking UN complicity...

Two years after the charges first surfaced, Kofi Annan has finally admitted that U.N. peacekeeping troops sexually abused war refugees in the Democratic Republic of Congo. "I am really shocked by these accusations," the United Nations Secretary-General told reporters last week. He shouldn't be. Allegations of sex crimes committed by U.N. staff and troops date back at least a decade and span operations on three continents, in places like Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Cambodia. But rather than showing the kind of "zero tolerance" toward sexual crimes that Mr. Annan now promises, the U.N. has treated such instances with cavalier...

LAST MONTH A CLASSIFIED UNITED Nations report prompted Secretary General Kofi Annan to admit that U.N. peacekeepers and staff have sexually abused or exploited war refugees in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The worst of the 150 or so allegations of misconduct--some of them captured on videotape--include pedophilia, rape, and prostitution. While a U.N. investigation into the scandal continues, the organization has just suspended two more peacekeepers in neighboring Burundi over similar charges. The revelations come three years after another U.N. report found "widespread" evidence of sexual abuse of West African refugees."The issue with the U.N. is that peacekeeping operations...

While all the television news outlets are presenting their post-mortems on 2004, there are some issues in waiting that are poised to launch us into the New Year face first. The Feinstein Doctrine Leaking a portion of the 2005 Democrat Playbook, California Senator Dianne Feinstein will propose to the 109th Congress a constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College and replace it with a supposed one-person, one-vote system for electing the president and vice president. “The Electoral College is an anachronism, and the time has come to bring our democracy into the 21st century. During the founding years of the...

UN staff in Congo face child sex claims By William Wallis in Nairobi Published: May 17 2004 5:00 | Last Updated: May 17 2004 5:00 One of the United Nations toughest missions in Africa is facing damaging allegations that peacekeeping troops as well as civilian UN personnel have been involved in the systematic sexual abuse of minors. William Lacy Swing, the Special Representative to the UN Secretary General in the Democratic Republic of Congo, told the Financial Times on Sunday that an ongoing investigation into the allegations would be "thorough" and that strict disciplinary measures would be taken to ensure...