In
late April, after 30 years of service providing humanitarian aid, Anders
Kompass was put on suspension by the UN. His mistake? Leaking a report which
detailed sexual abuses carried out by French soldiers stationed in the Central
African Republic. This week, Kompass made headlines again when a tribunal at
the UN
ordered his suspension be lifted immediately, calling it “unlawful.”
It
all started last summer, when Kompass was made privy to a confidential report
detailing a sex-for-food scandal, where children, aged 8-15, were given basic
goods in exchange for sexual favors.
The
children who
were interviewed by UN personnel talk of being raped and sodomized and
given ‘sweets’ in exchange. The abuse was allegedly carried out by French
peacekeeping troops who were there on a Minusca peace keeping mission. The
report also noted that the children they interviewed were likely representative
of a much large number of sexual abuse victims.
Kompass
became upset when UN officials failed to take action and took matters into his
own hands, passing
the report along to the French authorities. Members of the French
government wrote back, thanking Kompass for bringing the report to their
attention and promising to launch a full scale investigation. It seems the UN
knew about the correspondence, and didn’t discipline Kompass at the time. Yet
months later, he found himself being suspended for “breaching protocols.”
Outrage
and headlines reported the suspension and a tribunal was soon set up. Then, on
Wednesday, a judge ruled his suspension be temporarily lifted until an internal
investigation could be completed. Yet despite this win, many are pointing out
that this is all part of a much larger issue.
Paula
Donovan, co-director of AIDS Free World, who passed
the along the report to The Guardian, told them, “The regular sex abuse by
peacekeeping personnel uncovered here and the United Nations’ appalling
disregard for victims are stomach-turning, but the awful truth is that this
isn’t uncommon. 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.”
It’s
true that in many areas of the world UN peacekeeping troops are given a wary
eye. This is especially true when it comes to sexual abuse. According to the
Christian Science Monitor, women in Kosovo routinely underwent rape and
sexual abuse by those on peacekeeping missions. In West Africa, there were
reports of aid being withheld in exchange for sex. In the DRC, numerous
testimonials regarding the rape of both women and children at the hands of
peacekeepers have emerged. And allegations of rape and exploitation from East
Timor, Cambodia, Somalia, Burundi and Haiti have also come to light.
The
danger of peacekeeping forces has been an open secret for years. In the book Emergency
Sex and Other Desperate Measures, a tell-all authored by three former UN
workers, Andrew Thompson, who worked in both Rwanda and Bosnia gives this
advice to those in war zones: “If blue-helmeted UN peacekeepers show up in your
town or village and offer to protect you, run. Or else get weapons. Your lives
are worth so much less than theirs.”
Although
many inside the UN feel that the actions of a few should not taint the
overwhelming efforts of thousands, what is most disturbing is that nothing is
coming of these reports without someone breaking protocol. This suggests that
peacekeepers perpetrating some of the most violent and despicable acts known to
humankind are being routinely ignored by higher-ups within the organization.
This
lack of action, oversight and transparency in dealing with sexual assault has
created a level of complicity that the UN must work to remedy, rather than
suspending those who forced by organizational inaction into making the only
ethical choice.
Care
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