Come forward, if guilty: France

Rage grows over C. Africa ‘child rape’ scandal

PARIS, May 3, (Agencies): France’s defence minister has urged soldiers “to give themselves up” if they are guilty of sexually assaulting hungry Central African kids, as questions remain on why the probe into the alleged crimes is taking so long.

In an interview published Sunday, Jean-Yves Le Drian said he felt “disgust” and “betrayal” when he received a leaked UN report in July last year alleging soldiers dispatched to the country to restore order after a 2013 coup had sexually assaulted kids in exchange for food.

“When a French soldier is on a mission, he is France,” the minister told the JDD weekly.

“If one of them has committed such acts, they must immediately give themselves in.” The abuse reportedly took place at a centre for displaced people near the airport of the Central African capital Bangui between December 2013 — when the French operation began — and June 2014.

UN rights investigators conducted a probe into the allegations in the spring of 2014, and a UN employee later turned the report over to French authorities because he felt his bosses had failed to take action.

Le Drian said he immediately gave the report to the courts, adding that an internal army probe into the matter was conducted and finished in August.

“It is naturally available to the courts, which are tasked with conducting the judicial probe,” he said.

Asked why the investigation opened by prosecutors was still not finished nine months after the ministry received the leaked report, Le Drian said it was a “complex investigation.”

“Since the alleged events, most soldiers have left that theatre of operations, but that must not stop the courts from doing their job swiftly.”

According to the JDD, which saw a copy of the leaked UN report, the six children testifying against the soldiers have given very precise descriptions of tattoos and nicknames.

But a French judicial source said last week that of the 14 soldiers implicated in the probe, only a few had actually been identified.

Soldiers from Chad and Equatorial Guinea are also accused, said Paula Donovan of the AIDS-Free World advocacy group which saw the report.

“One of the children interviewed said that he had seen his friend, aged 9 or 10, with 2 soldiers from Equatorial Guinea,” Donovan told AFP by e-mail.

“The friend performed fellatio and was sodomised by one soldier while the other kept watch, and then the soldiers exchanged roles.”

Many children in the desolate camp — home to more than 100,000 during the bloodiest days of the crisis in the the Central African Republic last year — were orphans, forced to fend for themselves for food and water.

Most displaced families living amid the abandoned planes in M’Poko had lost everything, fleeing inter-religious violence that peaked in early 2014.

Ravaged

The country had been ravaged by a conflict that took on an unprecedented religious dimension after a 2013 coup, pitting mainly Muslim rebels against Christian vigilantes.

“There was a whole world that revolved not just around the French soldiers, but also the European force, especially at night-time,” a UN diplomat in Bangui said on condition of anonymity.

A former camp resident, Elias Mboro Te Zogne, is convinced some of the displaced were exploited in exchange for food. “Everyone knows there were groups of young women, especially, who took pleasure from being with the European troops based in the airport area, in exchange for biscuits or sardines,” he said.

Many people living in M’Poko had lost their jobs because of the violence engulfing the landlocked country, while others’ homes had been looted.

Fleeing to the airport camp, they settled in a surreal landscape, using the planes’ wings for shade and to hang up their wet laundry to dry.

Hunger in M’Poko became so widespread that riots often broke out when food was distributed.

While France and the Central African Republic have both launched probes into the allegations, the verdict on the streets of the capital Bangui is damning.

“I think it’s unacceptable... to treat the children like that because they’re hungry. They should have helped the children. It’s completely inhuman,” said Florentine Guinawiune, a mother in her late twenties.

The peacekeepers should have been helping, “not raping”, said Ibrahim Ahamat, a member of a Central African Muslim association.

“Those who are supposed to protect us are behaving like rapists. They must be tracked down and brought to justice,” said a young unemployed man, Judickael Kpengoulougna.

The UN rights office, which is investigating the leak, has been accused of trying to cover up the crimes — something it flatly denies.

“I think any implication that (UN human rights chief) Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein would try to cover up sexual abuse (of) children is frankly offensive and highly unlikely if you look at his personal history,” spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva.

He pointed out that Zeid, who took over as High Commissioner for Human Rights last September, had in the past spearheaded the UN work to address the scourge of sexual abuse by peacekeepers. His predecessor Navi Pillay, who was still in office when the report was leaked to the French, would also never shy away from revealing sexual abuse of children, he insisted.

So why did the allegations against the French troops not come to light until a year after UN teams began interviewing victims of the alleged sexual abuse last May?

Colville said that some investigations are kept secret until concluded to protect especially very young victims, and to help ensure the perpetrators can be held responsible.

He also stressed that the French troops implicated in the scandal were not UN peacekeepers, meaning it was up to France, not the UN to investigate.

The United Nations on Friday said “it is possible, it’s horribly possible” that more allegations of sexual abuse of children by French and other soldiers in Central African Republic could come to light as investigations continue.

A UN human rights spokesman reminded reporters in Geneva that conditions where the alleged abuse occurred last year were chaotic, with thousands of displaced people taking refuge at the capital’s airport and under protection of French and other troops.