Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201505071672.html

In late March, a report commissioned by the Colombian government claimed that US military soldiers and contractors had sexually abused at least 54 children in Colombia between 2003 and 2007, emphasising that the perpetrators had not been brought to justice on account of diplomatic agreements between the US and Colombia which protect US military personnel from prosecution.

While this report made some headlines in Latin America, the US and European media barely mentioned the story - nor did international human rights organisations. Yet last week's revelations that French troops sexually abused children in the Central African Republic in 2014 have drawn global media attention. This scandal has raised diplomatic tensions, led to the suspension of a senior UN official - and the reason for the widespread outrage is that it appears the United Nations sought to bury an internal report detailing the abuses.

France intervened in the Central African Republic in December 2013, months after a rebel group took over the capital and overthrew President Francois Bozize.

The subsequent violence between Muslim and Christian militias led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, into neighbouring states, but also into makeshift camps for those internally displaced.

Sex acts for food

It is in one such camp near the airport of the capital Bangui where the alleged abuses took place. A United Nations report that came to light last week alleges that between December 2013 and June 2014, 14 French soldiers and five troops from Chad and Equatorial Guinea forced children to perform sex acts in exchange for food or money.

Ten victims were interviewed in May and June 2014 by a UNICEF official and a member of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the ensuing report was submitted to officials within the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva.

When the UN did not take action, a high-ranking UN official by the name of Anders Kompass handed the report - titled "Sexual Abuse on Children by International Armed Forces" - to the French authorities who then launched their own investigation.

Since The Guardian broke this story, French officials have responded quickly.

"If some soldiers behaved badly, I will be merciless," declared President Francois Hollande, "If this information is confirmed, there will be exemplary sanctions."

Likewise the French Minister of Defence Jean-Yves Le Drian stated that upon being alerted by the UN, he gave the report to French court prosecutors and had the army carry out an internal investigation in August 2014. But he also conceded that "very few" perpetrators had been identified, and he asked to them to turn themselves in.

But the story is no longer simply about the misconduct of French troops, but also about how the UN responds to cases of sexual abuse. UN officials claim that their peacekeeping troops and the UN mission started after the French mission began, and that the French troops were not under UN control. That is true, but UN troops were sent in to support French soldiers, and UN officials were aware of the abuse but simply sat on the report.

Since the story came to light, Anders Kompass, the Swedish UN official who leaked the internal report to the French government, has been suspended for sharing confidential information and breaching UN protocol - a decision endorsed by Zeid Raad al-Hussein, the high commissioner for human rights, and Susana Malcorra, the current United Nations chef de cabinet to the executive office.

UN officials claim that what he leaked was a draft that had the unredacted names of victims and informants who could be endangered.

Diplomatic crisis

A diplomatic crisis is now brewing between Sweden and the UN, as earlier this month the Swedish ambassador to the United Nations cautioned senior UN officials that "it would not be a good thing if the high commissioner for human rights forced" Kompass to resign. The Swedish government has not issued a statement since Kompass' dismissal.

Various NGOs are now arguing that Kompass was suspended because the UN tried to bury the report, and because of a past record of peacekeepers engaging in sexual abuse in the Congo, Haiti, and Sudan. Activists are calling for an independent commission inquiry.

Paula Donovan, co-director of the advocacy group Aids Free World, declared: "The UN's instinctive response to sexual violence in its ranks - ignore, deny, cover up, dissemble - must be subjected to a truly independent commission of inquiry with total access, top to bottom, and full subpoena power."

Raad al-Hussein is, after all, the author of the 2005 Zeid Report, which presented a detailed analysis of sexual exploitation in UN peacekeeping missions, and laid out the organisation's zero tolerance policy for sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers.

But this policy does not apply to troops not fighting under UN umbrella as was the case with the French in CAR. The UN after all does not have the ability to prosecute troops even those under UN control - it is the member states that are responsible for prosecution.

What this scandal actually reveals is how difficult it is for the UN to deal with abuse committed by the troops of a powerful state, and a permanent member of the Security Council, on whom the international organisation relies for funds and manpower. The UN, lest we forget, is not an independent actor but reflects and is constrained by the interests and capacities of myriad states.

Source: http://www.thedailyvox.co.za/car-french-troops-embroiled-in-sex-for-sweets-scandal/

The French soldiers accused of raping orphan boys at a camp for internally displaced people in the Central African Republic (CAR) say their actions have been misunderstood, French authorities said in a statement on Wednesday.

“The soldiers thought the boys were 15 years or older and had given consent for sodomy, but the boys had clearly lied about their age during sex-for-food negotiations,” said Jean-Claude La’Marre, spokesperson for the French army.

The age of consent in France is 15. Most of the boys raped by French soldiers were younger than 10.

The latest developments come after a confidential UN document detailing the sexual exploitation of young children in Bangui by French troops was leaked to French prosecutors.

Reports suggest the whistle-blower who sent the report to French prosecutors out of frustration with the UN’s lack of response to the incident, has since been suspended by the UN.

On Sunday French soldiers were expected to visit orphans and “clarify the situation”.

“Not only did they agree to being touched, we gave them buttered croissants and macaroons,” one soldier said.

The French government said it would find ways to redeem their tainted image on the African continent.

“I guess French citizenship is better than being screwed for nothing,” said President Francois Hollande’s spokesperson, Gené Seppah.

Source: http://www.bdlive.co.za/world/europe/2015/05/07/un-whistleblower-on-car-child-sex-scandal-reinstated

GENEVA — A UN tribunal has ordered the reinstatement of Swedish official Anders Kompass who was suspended for leaking a report to France about child abuse by French peacekeepers in the Central African Republic.

The ruling of the internal tribunal was delivered on Tuesday and Kompass "has thus resumed his service," a spokesman for the UN human rights office said.

Mr Kompass will however continue to face an internal United Nations probe following accusations that he passed on confidential information, including the names of the alleged victims, without getting the go-ahead of his superiors.

"We remain extremely concerned that copies are circulating of the confidential unredacted preliminary notes of the interviews with the children," the spokesman said.

The UN tribunal said the fact that Mr Kompass had resumed his job would not affect the investigation underway.

Mr Kompass, a director of operations at the UN human rights office, was put on administrative leave with full pay on April 17 for having passed on the confidential report to France in July last year.

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