UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s legacy in tatters as reports of peacekeepers’ abuse grows
From rape scandal to other damaging accounts keep surfacing amid allegations of failure to investigate and act
One night last August as the Central African Republic (CAR) was gripped by a conflict between Christian and Muslim groups, United Nations (UN) peacekeeping troops descended on an enclave in search of a suspect. One of the peacekeepers is accused of taking a 12-year-old girl behind a truck and raping her.
“When I cried, he slapped me hard and put his hand over my mouth,” the girl told Amnesty International.
It was hardly the only act of brutality by peacekeepers in the world’s poorest nations. There were 99 allegations of sexual abuse against UN staff last year, a 25 per cent increase over 2014, affecting peacekeeping operations in countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Ivory Coast, Libya, Mali and Sudan.
The UN is famous as a place where rapists get away with rape,” said Paula Donovan, co-founder and director of Aids-Free World
Vulnerable civilians in armed conflict have long been victims of abusive soldiers. But the 104,000 blue-helmeted troops currently deployed are sent by more than a dozen countries to protect people. Their repeated failures are looming over the UN as it chooses a new leader and tarnishing the legacy of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon who is ending his decade-long tenure amid accusations that he has not taken the issue seriously.
“For 10 years, the secretary general has been happy to sweep all of these allegations under the carpet, but this ‘out of sight, out of mind’ strategy has broken down before he reached the end of his term,” said Peter Gallo, a former UN investigator. “The organisation’s manifest failure is to properly investigate any form of wrongdoing.”