First came Oil for Fraud,...now THIS!

[rikzilla]

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has sent a team of investigators into refugee camps in west Africa following the revelation that large numbers of children have been sexually exploited by aid workers there.

From the BBC....

An unspecified number of interviewees complained that they or their children had to have sex in order to get food and favours.

Over 40 aid agencies - including the UNHCR itself - were implicated, and 67 individuals - mostly local staff - named by the children.

Some under-age girls said United Nations peacekeepers in the West African region were involved.

Most of those who said they were abused were girls under the age of 18, but the mission said it had heard from some who were much younger.

How sick! Michael Jackson should become a UNHCR staff member, a bowl of rice is sure cheaper than $25,000,000 in hush money.

So, who polices the UN again? Oh yeah, the UN.

-z

 

[Tmy]

Do you teh the US should leave the UN? Or are they much more valuable as a scapegoat?

 

[geni]

From the BBC....



How sick! Michael Jackson should become a UNHCR staff member, a bowl of rice is sure cheaper than $25,000,000 in hush money.

So, who polices the UN again? Oh yeah, the UN.

-z

Looks like news traveled even slower in the US than I thought. The story You linked to is two years old and there have been rumors about it for even longer. To a large degree this has been sorted out but probably uniquely for the UN it is a problem of not enough management.

 

[E.J.Armstrong]

Did I hear something about US soldiers abusing prisoners somewhere. Who polices US soldiers? Oh yes US soldiers. What logical position should we draw from these observations I wonder

 

[Mycroft]

Re: Re: First came Oil for Fraud,...now THIS!

Looks like news traveled even slower in the US than I thought. The story You linked to is two years old and there have been rumors about it for even longer. To a large degree this has been sorted out but probably uniquely for the UN it is a problem of not enough management.

Two years?

That seems like plenty of time to conduct a full investigation and prosecute the guilty. Do you know the results of that?

 

[E.J.Armstrong]

originally posted by Mycroft
Two years?

That seems like plenty of time to conduct a full investigation and prosecute the guilty. Do you know the results of that?

Are you the Mycroft who keeps running away from your false UTG claim. How long are you going to need to be a man and either stand by your own claim or withdraw it? 2 years?

 

[Mycroft]

Are you the Mycroft who keeps running away from your false UTG claim. How long are you going to need to be a man and either stand by your own claim or withdraw it? 2 years?

Wow. Five of the seven posts you've made today all relate to me. How did I become the subject of your fixation?

 

[geni]

Re: Re: Re: First came Oil for Fraud,...now THIS!

Two years?

That seems like plenty of time to conduct a full investigation and prosecute the guilty. Do you know the results of that?

Not really. To be honest though I don't have a huge amount of confidance in the judicial systems of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

 

[rikzilla]

Do you teh the US should leave the UN? Or are they much more valuable as a scapegoat?

Well they do have that value,...do we know of any other value? The UN as an institution is the purest of pure bureaucracy: it is the thirty-year single malt of bureaucracies. ... It exists to exist.

-z

 

[rikzilla]

Re: Re: First came Oil for Fraud,...now THIS!

Looks like news traveled even slower in the US than I thought. The story You linked to is two years old and there have been rumors about it for even longer. To a large degree this has been sorted out but probably uniquely for the UN it is a problem of not enough management.

Yes but as others have pointed out it is on-going and unrelenting. Here's the link I should have posted...from yesterday....

Linked in the past to sex crimes in East Timor, and prostitution in Cambodia and Kosovo, UN peacekeepers have now been accused of sexually abusing the very population they were deployed to protect in Congo. And while the 150 allegations of rape, pedophelia and solicitation in Congo may be the UN’ worst sex scandal in years, chronic problems almost guarantee that few of the suspects will face serious punishment. ...

The recent vote of no-confidence against Annan from UN workers stems in part from this kind of management non-action. Or perhaps UN upper management does not consider child-rape to be an unreasonable perk.

-z

 

[rikzilla]

Did I hear something about US soldiers abusing prisoners somewhere. Who polices US soldiers? Oh yes US soldiers. What logical position should we draw from these observations I wonder

Another EJA non-sequitur.

US soldiers caught breaking military law are incarcerated...when UN members break the law they....what exactly????

-z

 

[geni]

Re: Re: Re: First came Oil for Fraud,...now THIS!

Yes but as others have pointed out it is on-going and unrelenting. Here's the link I should have posted...from yesterday....



The recent vote of no-confidence against Annan from UN workers stems in part from this kind of management non-action. Or perhaps UN upper management does not consider child-rape to be an unreasonable perk.

-z

This is the congo we are talking about. You have to employ locals because the only foriens who will go there are mercenries and armies. Mercenries are not exactly going to help the situation and the people in charge of armies (particularly the western sort who might be abke to help in thoery) don't want to send to places that make Iraq look like a pinic.

I mean the only group that isn't shooting at you is being eaten by the other three. Combien that with the way the souronding countries keep invading and it adds up to being a not very nice place.

 

[geni]

Another EJA non-sequitur.

US soldiers caught breaking military law are incarcerated...when UN members break the law they....what exactly????

-z

Employies not members. For the most part they should face trial in whatever passes for the local courts. This being congo that couble be somewhat tricky.

 

[demon]

Wonder if they raped the kids the same way as they raped the kids in Abu Grhaib.

 

[rikzilla]

Re: Re: Re: Re: First came Oil for Fraud,...now THIS!

This is the congo we are talking about. You have to employ locals because the only foriens who will go there are mercenries and armies. Mercenries are not exactly going to help the situation and the people in charge of armies (particularly the western sort who might be abke to help in thoery) don't want to send to places that make Iraq look like a pinic.

I mean the only group that isn't shooting at you is being eaten by the other three. Combien that with the way the souronding countries keep invading and it adds up to being a not very nice place.

So you're basically saying (wink-wink-nod-nod) that the problem is confined to "locals" in Africa??

But then isn't it true that the problem was not limited to Africa, but present in many places where the UN had a peacekeeping mission?

There's THIS

...and THIS

Now, is "High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers, 65, a former Dutch prime minister" also a "local"?? Put all this together with Oil for Food and it starts to sound like the UN has some serious institutional problems.

-z

 

[rikzilla]

Wonder if they raped the kids the same way as they raped the kids in Abu Grhaib.

Demon says:(sputter)...but, but....Abu Ghraib! ABU GHRAIB!...(choke)

 

[aerocontrols]

Looks like news traveled even slower in the US than I thought. The story You linked to is two years old and there have been rumors about it for even longer. To a large degree this has been sorted out but probably uniquely for the UN it is a problem of not enough management.

Yeah, it's an old story. Trouble is, it doesn't stop. It's in the news again because a report is about to be issued, featuring events that happened as 'long ago' as last spring.

Last month, one French soldier and two Tunisian soldiers were sent home, U.N. officials said. Three U.N. civilian staff were suspended.

Employies not members. For the most part they should face trial in whatever passes for the local courts. This being congo that couble be somewhat tricky.

Also from my previous article:

The United Nations has jurisdiction over its civilian staff but troops are contributed by individual nations. Consequently, the world body has only the power to demand a specific country repatriate an accused soldier and punish him or her at home.

So. The UN has jurisdiction and is capable of punishing its civilian staff, should it choose. No hiding behind the court system in the Congo, I'm afraid.

Further, from one of your 'old' stories.

She claims she was 'appalled' to find that many of her fellow officers were involved. She was fired by the British company after amassing evidence that UN police were taking part in the trafficking of young women from eastern Europe as sex slaves. She said: 'When I started collecting evidence from the victims of sex trafficking it was clear that a number of UN officers were involved from several countries, including quite a few from Britain. I was shocked, appalled and disgusted. They were supposed to be over there to help, but they were committing crimes themselves. When I told the supervisors they didn't want to know.'

So. Not just locals. Perhaps you should get up-to-speed on this old story, because you don't seem to know much about it.

MattJ

 

[geni]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: First came Oil for Fraud,...now THIS!

So you're basically saying (wink-wink-nod-nod) that the problem is confined to "locals" in Africa??

But then isn't it true that the problem was not limited to Africa, but present in many places where the UN had a peacekeeping mission?

There's THIS

Lots of acusations. Did they go anywhere?

...and THIS

Now, is "High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers, 65, a former Dutch prime minister" also a "local"?? Put all this together with Oil for Food and it starts to sound like the UN has some serious institutional problems.

-z

I don't see any reason to think that the two issues are connected

 

[demon]

Yes, thought you would find the mention of Iraqi kids getting raped a source for amusement...I guess that`s one act of violence a chickenhawk just might have the courage to do to another human being. What ya think Rik?

 

[geni]

So. Not just locals. Perhaps you should get up-to-speed on this old story, because you don't seem to know much about it.

MattJ

Is there some kind of mailing list that goes round?

That story is 3 years old. Any evidence that those acusations went anywhere?

(incerdently since when has the UK had fair use?)