UN ‘fails victims of sexual abuse by its troops’

THE United Nations has been accused of failing victims of sexual abuse carried out by its peacekeepers.

More than 1,700 allegations have been made against its personnel – both military and civilian – over the past 15 years.

Yet – despite promises of action – only 53 uniformed peacekeepers and one civilian peacekeeper have ever been sent to prison for sexual offences. And a Channel 4 documentary will claim this week that 32 fresh allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse have been levelled against its forces this year.

Tony Banbury, who resigned from the UN in 2016 after spending more than 20 years overseeing its relief and peacekeeping missions, painted a bleak picture of the organisation.

He said: ‘The reality is there is no guarantee of criminal accountability for someone who commits rape inside the UN peacekeeping mission, despite a lot of effort by a lot of people and a strong commitment by the top reaches of the UN. The systems in place now are full of holes.’

One victim, Daniella from the Central African Republic, told the documentary that a French peacekeeper took her off the street.

‘They grabbed me, took me inside the house. After they took me inside, they took my clothes off, threw me down, had sex with me, then took me outside and told me to go.’

Her family said they did not know how to make a complaint to UN officials, so her rape went unrecorded.

Another victim, Manda, who was 11 at the time she was attacked, said that she was ‘grabbed by force’ when she was on her way to the market to get flour. ‘I don’t know why he chose me’, she said. ‘After he had sex with me he gave me money and told me not to talk about it. It was in the second month I got pregnant.’

The UN commander in the Central African Republic, Lieutenant General Balla Keita, admitted: ‘We have very good people, we have people that are so-so, we’ve got bad people and we’ve got very bad people.’

Didier Bourguet was jailed for two rapes but admitted having sex with 20 or 25 children when he was working for the UN in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2004.

Valerie, who was 14 when Bourguet raped her at a hotel, said: ‘The first time he gave me $2, the second time $5, another time $15.

‘I was still young. I felt very bad because he was my father’s age. My heart is not content. This person has ruined my life.’

Another girl, Mauricette, was 17 when she was drugged and gang raped by Mauritian UN peacekeepers. She told the programme: ‘I fell to the ground and lost consciousness. I woke up in the Samaritan hospital. That was when I was told what had happened to me.

‘After that I stopped doing many of the things I used to do. I can’t walk outside like I used to. I am condemned to stay at home.’

A UN spokesman told Channel 4 it would ‘work to ensure sexual harassment is never tolerated and abusers are held to account’.

Allegations have been made over peacekeeping missions from Cambodia to Bosnia and from DR Congo to Haiti. The UN Sex Abuse Scandal is on Channel 4 on Wednesday at 10.30pm.

‘They grabbed me and took my clothes off’