AP News<\/span><\/a> headlined “UN: Sex exploitation by peacekeepers strongly underreported.”<\/p>\nAP obtained a draft UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) report (expected to be released later in June) on sexual crimes committed by Blue Helmets.<\/p>\n
It comes a decade after a similar earlier one discovered a disturbing pattern of peacekeeper misconduct wherever they’re deployed – including sexual criminality.<\/p>\n
Evidence showed so-called peacekeepers regularly had sex with young girls. Blue Helmets in Bosnia and Kosovo forced around 2,000 women into sex slavery.<\/p>\n
Liberian girls young as 12 were exploited. Pedophilia was discovered in other countries. At the time, a UN statement said:<\/p>\n
“The reality of prostitution and other sexual exploitation in a peacekeeping context is profoundly disturbing because the United Nations has been mandated to enter into a broken society to help it, not to breach the trust placed in it by the local population.”<\/p>\n
UN authorities claim they operate on the principle of not “in any way increas(ing) the suffering of vulnerable sectors of (a) population.”<\/p>\n
Yet wherever they’re deployed, they’re alleged mandate is egregiously violated – most often unaccountably.<\/p>\n
AP reported Blue Helmets engaging in “transactional sex” with more than 225 Haitian women – in exchange for food, medicines and other inducements.<\/p>\n
It said sexual exploitation “remains significantly underreported” wherever Blue Helmets are deployed.<\/p>\n
“(M)ajor challenges remain a decade after a groundbreaking UN report first tackled this issue.”<\/p>\n
It remains unchecked, out-of-control with little done to curb abusive practices.<\/p>\n
The reported indicated about one-third of sexual abuses committed against minor under age 18. Aiding victims is “severely deficient.”<\/p>\n
Investigations when conducted drag on interminably – usually without resolution. Victimization continues unchecked.<\/p>\n
UN investigators interviewed 231 Haitian women and girls saying they had “transactional sexual relationships” with Blue Helmets.<\/p>\n
Haiti is the hemisphere’s poorest country – still devastated from the 2010 earthquake, UN-caused cholera epidemic killing thousands, and US-installed repressive governance.<\/p>\n
“For rural (Haitian) women, hunger, lack of shelter, baby care items, medication and household items were frequently cited as the ‘triggering need,’ ” for transactional sex, according to the UN report.<\/p>\n
Urban and suburban women got “church shoes, cell phones, laptops and perfume, as well as money,” it explained.<\/p>\n
“In cases of non-payment, some women withheld the badges of peacekeepers and threatened to reveal their infidelity via social media.”<\/p>\n
“Only seven interviewees knew about the United Nations policy prohibiting sexual exploitation and abuse.” None knew about a UN hotline to report it.<\/p>\n
Peacekeeper sexual transactions are prohibited conduct. Yet the practice continues widespread perhaps since Blue Helmets were first deployed – for sure going back many years.<\/p>\n
Number of reported abuses way undercount the problem’s severity. The UN’s draft report doesn’t say over what time period “transactional sex” occurred in Haiti.<\/p>\n
Blue Helmets were first deployed there in 2004. Straightaway horrendous abuses were committed – including persecution, violence, sex crimes and murder.<\/p>\n
On the one hand, peacekeepers are allegedly deployed to protect vulnerable people. Instead they abuse them.<\/p>\n
Haiti is Exhibit A – its people brutally exploited for 11 years with no end of unwanted occupation in sight.<\/p>\n
At times clashes erupt. Haitians want real democracy and justice they’re denied – including respect for their fundamental civil and human rights. Not as long as America enforces colonial rule.<\/p>\n
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.<\/p>\n
His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.claritypress.com\/LendmanIII.html<\/p>\n
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.<\/p>\n
Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.<\/p>\n
It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Stephen Lendman (RINF) – UN Blue Helmets are supposed to restore order, maintain peace and security and help troubled nations transition to stability. Instead, they operate as imperial enforcers creating more conflict than resolution – including committing horrific human rights abuses against vulnerable people they’re mandated to protect. Wherever they’re deployed it’s the same […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":158667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-158646","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-editorials"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}