Next Thing You Know, Sensitivity Training Will Be Required

Troops suspected of fathering "peacekeeper babies" should be forced to undergo paternity tests and pay child support as part of a series of measures to control sexual abuse and "aberrant behavior", the U.N. recommended yesterday.
Dozens of complaints about U.N. personnel in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have led to the suspension of six U.N. civilian staff, the repatriation of 66 peacekeepers, and the prosecution in France of a French logistics expert allegedly caught with a 12-year-old girl.

An international organization examining the sex trade in Congo reported last year that at least 82 women and girls had been made pregnant by Moroccan peacekeepers and 59 more by Uruguayan soldiers on U.N. duty there. An investigation by The Times of London found that at least two U.N. officials had to leave the country after getting local women pregnant.

Let's see, the UN reacts by requesting that soldiers take paternity tests to confirm the stories of babies borne of potentially non-consensual relationships.

The problem starts with the failure of the UN to oversee peacekeeping operations to the degree necessary to avoid the situation in the first place. UN officials had to leave the country in one instance because they got local women pregnant. That's some oversight.

It would appear that there is a culture of sexual promiscuity condoned within the UN, and the peacekeepers and officials appears to be following the motto: whatever happens on a peacekeeping operations, stays on the peacekeeping operation.

Almost half the complaints involved sex with people under the age of 18 — the U.N.-prescribed age of consent — and another third related to prostitution; but 13 percent of the charges alleged rape.

If this story related to US forces engaged in operations somewhere around the world, this story would be plastered to the front page of every newspaper around the world. Yet, this story does not get that kind of treatment from the major newspapers like the New York Times.

Why is that the case?

Prince Zeid highlighted the problems faced by so-called "peacekeeper babies" left behind by U.N. personnel. The U.N. makes no provision for these offspring at present.

How about a problem resulting from UN failures to properly train and operate in these difficult environments. The UN doesn't have a policy for preventing sexual misconduct - except to look the other way and pass the buck. That's a great strategy.

UPDATE 10:09 EST:
According to the NYT, Prince Zeid noted:

... that current efforts to curb abuses were "ad hoc and inadequate" and that exploitative behavior was widespread.

In a cover letter, Mr. Annan said that while peacekeeping had brought stability to many countries over decades, the record had been damaged by acts he termed "unconscionable" and that present measures were "manifestly inadequate."

"Such abhorrent acts are a violation of the fundamental duty of care that all United Nations peacekeeping personnel owe to the local populations they serve," Mr. Annan said, adding that a "fundamental change in approach was needed."

A fundamental change in approach would start with the leadership of the UN stepping up and accepting that they failed their primary duty of protecting those in their care. Stepping down is the correct, moral, and prudent thing to do.

But don't count on that happening any time soon.