Tutu resigns as an Oxfam ambassador over scandal

NOBEL Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu has said he will no longer be a global ambassador for Oxfam after allegations that senior staff in crisis zones paid for sex among the desperate people the group was meant to serve.

The South African emeritus archbishop says he was “deeply disappointed by allegations of immorality and possible criminality”.

Mr Tutu (86) rarely makes public statements because of health problems.

Actress Minnie Driver and Senegalese musician Baaba Maal have also quit as celebrity ambassadors for Oxfam following its response to a sex abuse scandal in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.

Meanwhile, the former head of Oxfam’s operations in Haiti has admitted having a sexual relationship with a woman he helped in the aftermath of the quake.

Roland van Hauwermeiren wrote an open letter defending

Disappointed: Desmond Tutu

his behaviour during overseas aid work between 2004 and 2011. He claimed he never used prostitutes while co-ordinating the crisis relief effort in the Caribbean country, but said he was “deeply ashamed” by aspects of his behaviour.

Mr van Hauwermeiren resigned and other colleagues were sacked when Oxfam investigated accusations that aid workers used prostitutes.

His open letter, sent to Bel- gian broadcaster VTM, charts his work in Liberia, Chad and Haiti. On his work in Haiti, he said: “Myself, indeed, I am not perfect, I am not a saint — a man of flesh and blood, and have made mistakes (not easy to admit), and I am deeply ashamed.

“I indeed admitted to investigators that I had three times intimate contact in my house.

“It was, in my opinion, a mature honourable lady, not an earthquake victim and no prostitute, whom I had met since I supported her young sister and very young mother with diapers and powdered milk. I never gave them money.

“I also had frequent visits from a language prof (a lady), my driver, the younger brother, sisters and grandmother of the young lady in question.”

It has also emerged that one of the Oxfam workers sacked over sexual misconduct allegations in Haiti was later rehired by the charity in Ethiopia.

The decision was described by the charity as a “serious error”.