UN Beninese Troops Had 'Ongoing Sexual Relationships' With Girls for Food

[mick silver]

http://news.antiwar.com/2011/09/01/un-troops-traded-food-for-sex-with-underage-ivorian-girls/ ...
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The United Nations role as “peacekeeper” took another ugly hit today when a leaked State Department cable revealed that UN troops from Benin were caught trading food for sex (http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_18803803?source=email) with underage girls in the Ivory Coast.
http://news.antiwar.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/tou.jpgThe 2010 cable revealed that troops stationed in the town of Toulepleu, one of the wartorn nation’s most wartorn towns, had ongoing sex-for-food relationships with numerous girls, and some girls were also trading sex for shelter. The group Save the Children UK was involved in uncovering the abuse (http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/en/cote-divoire.htm).
The UN confirmed the report and said that 16 Beninese soldiers were kicked out of the country and barred from serving in future UN operations after a yearlong investigation. Of the 16, however, 10 were commanders, and the UN blamed the commanders for not making it clear that the soldiers weren’t supposed to sexually abuse the girls in the town.
This is the latest in a long line of UN sex scandals, it isn’t even the first time UN troops were caught doing this sort of thing in the Ivory Coast. In 2007 Moroccan UN troops were expelled from the city of Bouake in northern Ivory Coast after the UN received similar complaints

[Awoke]

Are you surprised?

[palani]

Are you surprised?

I recall this from several years back. The Serbs were accused of rape of Muslim women during the Bosnia affair. To prove these rapes were occurring the press brought in one such woman as an example prior to the birth of her child. The media was surprised when she gave birth to a baby with a darker skin. She was from an area where the UN was patrolling.

The incident set the liberal press back several decades (or several minutes .. I forget which).

[Twisted Titan]

I guess they got off lucky.......could have been roasted alive

[ximmy]

I guess they got off lucky.......could have been roasted alive

for some that would have been preferable...

[mightymanx]

This is the point in the thread where someone should jump in and explain in legal mumo jumbo that, "it was just 2 parties engaged in a private transaction."

On a serious note if this is the worst thing going on in Africa right now, they are having a peaceful quiet time. This is Africa where at any given moment there are several genocides and people die faster than the flies that circle the piles of bodies.

Africa has a rather steep bell curve as far as human rights goes.

[ShortJohnSilver]

"Emergency Sex" - someone wrote a book about this and other whoremongering at the UN...

http://www.amazon.com/Emergency-Sex-Other-Desperate-Measures/dp/1401352014

[Down1]

10 were commanders, and the UN blamed the commanders for not making it clear that the soldiers weren’t supposed to sexually abuse the girls in the town.
Those darned commanders.
Not "making it clear" they shouldn't sexually abuse girls.
Tossing them out of the country was the right action. Not as forceful as a month long paid vacation, but almost.
WTG U.N. !

[ShortJohnSilver]

Waiting for an updated commemorative coin, maybe it will be in Belgian, French, or some other UN official language, instead of the prior German, "Schwarze Schande" ...

[Serpo]

quote

the UN blamed the commanders for not making it clear that the soldiers weren’t supposed to sexually abuse the girls in the town.

it was the commanders fault ,only trouble was he was down in the town as well,swapping food,plus commanders get the best food.