Child Molesting UN Peacekeepers Almost Never Face Punishment According to AP

UN Peacekeepers have a long history of raping women and soliciting sex from children among the impoverished third world populations that they’re supposed to be protecting. Every time this fact surfaces (which seems to happen after almost every peacekeeping mission) the UN makes a big deal about finally putting an end to this vile and exploitative behaviour. However, nothing ever comes of it.

There’s a very simple explanation for why this never changes. The soldiers who commit these crimes are almost never punished. That’s what an AP investigation recently discovered.

AP interviewed a Haitian woman who had sex with 50 Sri Lankan peacekeepers when she was between the age 12 and 15, including a commandant who paid her pennies for sex. Eight other Haitian children, both boys and girls, reported being solicited for sex and raped by well over a hundred peacekeepers (there were only 900 Sri Lankan peacekeepers during this particular deployment) between 2004 and 2007. 114 peacekeepers wound up being sent home, but none were ever charged with a crime. AP spoke to a dozen more victims who were too afraid to report their experiences. And that’s just in Haiti.

All told, AP found nearly 2,000 allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation committed by UN peacekeepers over the past 12 years, 300 of which involve children. Only handful of the soldiers involved have seen the inside of a prison cell. That’s because the UN has to leave it up to the host countries of these peacekeepers to convict these soldiers; and those countries, which include Sri Lanka, Uruguay, Jordan, Brazil, Nigeria, and Pakistan, rarely admit to what has happened or pursue any investigation.

AP spoke to Tennessee Senator Bob Corker, who has been pushing for reform in the UN because of these abuses. “If I heard that a U.N. peacekeeping mission was coming near my home in Chattanooga, I’d be on the first plane out of here to go back and protect my family.”