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UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al
Hussein made his appeal after shocking revelations that French soldiers
deployed in the Central African Republic have been accused of sexually abusing
children in return for food ©Fabrice Coffrini (AFP)
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The boys said
they approached the French soldiers because they were hungry. Some were so
young they didn't quite understand the acts the soldiers demanded in return. One boy, 8 or
9 years old, said he did it several times to the same soldier, "until one
day an older kid saw him and told him what he was doing was bad."
AFP report continues:
Another boy, 9, said he thought the soldiers had been urinating.
Another boy, 9, said he thought the soldiers had been urinating.
U.N. investigators heard such stories of sexual abuse
from several boys in May and June 2014 in Central African Republic, where
French soldiers were protecting a sprawling displaced persons camp in the conflict-torn
capital, Bangui.
One year later, revelations about how the U.N. handled
the boys' accounts have horrified people both inside and outside the world
body. Statements marked "strictly confidential" have shown that its
top human rights officials failed to follow up for several months on the
allegations their own office had collected.
On Saturday, the high commissioner for human rights,
Zeid Raad al-Hussein, said his office was sending a team to Central African
Republic to look into what the statement called "possible further measures
to address human rights violations," including sexual violence. The office
also will ask "concerned states" what they have done to investigate
them and prosecute anyone.
No arrests have been announced, and it's not clear
where the accused soldiers, who were supporting a U.N. peacekeeping force, are
now. The U.N. seems unable to say when the abuses stopped, or how long it
continued to investigate.
On Friday, more documents were released by a
non-governmental organization run by two former U.N. staffers that's calling
for an independent investigation into the case. The documents show U.N.
officials scrambling not so much to help a French inquiry into the allegations
but to investigate the human rights staffer who told French authorities in the
first place.
A separate report with the children's allegations,
obtained by The Associated Press, says the first account was heard May 19 by a
human rights staffer and a UNICEF child protection officer. The interviews
continued through June 24. A Geneva-based human rights staffer shared the
report with French authorities in July.
The boys' accounts are simple and stark. An
11-year-old said he had gone "looking for empty wrappings to play
with" when a French soldier first called him over, later giving the boy
food and a little money in exchange for oral sex. Another boy, 9, "had
been severely beaten by his mother when he told her what had happened."
A UNICEF spokeswoman did not immediately respond to
questions Friday about how the children's agency reported the allegations, and
to whom.
The case has exposed a glaring weakness in a world
body that considers human rights one of its three main pillars: It has no
specific guidelines on how to handle allegations of child sexual abuse, and no
requirement for immediate, mandatory reporting.
Even when French gendarmes showed up at the U.N.
peacekeeping mission in Bangui to investigate the allegations — the report
shared with French authorities is on the mission's letterhead — they were told
they had to go through proper U.N. channels and talk to the human rights office
in Geneva instead.
That was in August. At the end of March, the U.N.
finally handed France a redacted copy of the same report they already had. The
U.N. says the report first given to the French included the names of the
children and witnesses and was a breach of protocol.
The children's allegations didn't make their way to
top officials at U.N. headquarters in New York for months. On Friday, U.N.
peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous told reporters he first heard about them this
spring. When asked why the mission in Central African Republic didn't alert his
office in New York right away, he said, "Some reporting lines maybe didn't
function."
The NGO that on Friday released internal U.N.
documents related to the case, AIDS-Free World, called for an independent
investigation into the way the allegations were handled from the start.
"The grim reality is that those with experience
within the U.N. system are unlikely to be surprised," its statement said.
"They know that this is not an unusual case; it is simply one that has
come, partially, to light."
A spokesman for the U.N. human rights office did not
comment Friday. The spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general, Stephane
Dujarric, told reporters that the documents "may or may not be
authentic."
It is not clear whether a U.N. commission of inquiry
on Central African Republic looked into the child sexual abuse allegations. It
has said that because of limited resources it focused on incidents involving
alleged deaths.
The commission's final report in December suggests
that the U.N. secretary-general report alleged violations by all peacekeepers
in Central African Republic, regardless of whether they are part of a U.N.
mission.
But on Friday, his spokesman said the
secretary-general only heard of the child sexual abuse allegations this spring.
Among the documents released Friday is a March 24
statement by the human rights staffer who interviewed the children. The
statement is for the U.N. investigation into what it calls the "leak"
to French authorities.
Between September and March, the staffer says, she
didn't hear anything about the case.
But she offers, "I still have all the notes I
took of the interviews if they would be of any help."
UN Rights Chief Seeks Wider
Probe Into C.Africa Peacekeeper Abuses
The UN human rights chief said Saturday he had asked
several countries to probe allegations of rape and killings by their troops in
the Central African Republic following reports of child abuse by French
peacekeepers.
A statement said the allegations concerning soldiers
from other countries were "very serious" and ranged from executions,
abductions to rape.
The appeal came after shocking revelations that French
soldiers deployed in the chronically restive, impoverished nation have been
accused of sexually abusing children in return for food.
Fourteen French soldiers are under investigation after
a group of children alleged troops sexually abused minors at a centre for
displaced people in CAR's capital Bangui between December 2013 and June 2014.
Zeid said there had been reports of abuse by soldiers
from other countries as well.
"These allegations are extremely
disturbing," he said. "Some of these incidents have been at least
partly investigated, and some states have apparently sanctioned some of the
soldiers involved."
Zeid said apart from asking the countries involved to
track down and punish offenders, his office was sending an investigating team
to Bangui.
Although France sent police to investigate the claims
after receiving an internal United Nations report last August, no children or
soldiers were questioned and the information was not made public.
It was only after The Guardian newspaper reported on
the affair last month that a full, public investigation was launched.
Both France and the UN have denied there was a
cover-up, but a UN official who leaked the report to France last summer was
temporarily suspended for disclosing the information.
French and UN peacekeepers were sent to CAR in late
2013 after the country descended into sectarian violence, leaving thousands
dead and some 900,000 displaced.
Zeid said some countries had probed rights abuses by
their troops following reports from the UN staff in CAR and had taken
"preliminary action" including "the sanctioning and early
repatriation of some senior ...commanders."
"But this is not sufficient," he said.
"The punishment must fit the crime, and some other incidents were reported
that may not have been fully followed up on by the states concerned."
"We need to get to get to the bottom of what
precisely was done by whom and when," he said.
"There must be accountability for serious crimes
no matter who commits them."
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