U.S. Says Countries Must Punish UN Troops for Sexual Abuse
The News
En esta fotografía del 16 de agosto de 2016, un cazco azul brasileño abre una puerta grande en una base de la ONU en el barrio pobre de Cite Soleil en Puerto Príncipe, Haití. Según una investigación de The Associated Press, unas 150 denuncias de abuso y explotación sexual fueron registradas en Haití de 2004 a 2016. Las denuncian implicaban a cascos azules y otro personal de la ONU. Los victimarios son de Bangladesh, Brasil, Jordania, Nigeria, Pakistán, Uruguay y Sri Lanka, según información de la ONU y entrevistas. Otros países podrían estar implicados y la ONU comenzó a revelar las nacionalidades de los infractores después de 2015. (AP Foto/Dieu Nalio Chery)
UNITED NATIONS – U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley is urging all countries that send troops to U.N. peacekeeping mission to hold soldiers accountable for sexual abuse and exploitation, an appeal that came after she cited an Associated Press investigation into a child sex ring in Haiti involving Sri Lankan peacekeepers.
Haley also warned that “countries that refuse to hold their soldiers accountable must recognize that this either stops or their troops will go home and their financial compensation will end.”
In this file photo, Janila Jean, 18, carries her daughter as she walks to a friend’s home in Jacmel, Haiti. Jean said she was a virgin at 16 when a Brazilian UN peacekeeper raped her at gunpoint and impregnated her. Photo: AP/Dieu Nalio Chery
Former U.N. secretary-general Ban Ki-moon recommended that U.N. peacekeepers accused of sexual abuse and exploitation be court martialed in countries where the alleged incidents took place. He said the U.N. would withhold payments to peacekeepers facing credible allegations.
Haley spoke after the U.N. voted to end the peacekeeping mission in Haiti in mid-October.
