Rape Of Young Boys By French Troops: 'No Mercy' If Troops Guilty Of CAR Child Rape —Hollande

A French soldier taking part in 'Operation Sangaris' standing guard as Muslim people wait to seek refuge at the Boali church, some 100km north of Bangui ©Eric Feferberg (AFP)

President Francois Hollande on Thursday vowed to "show no mercy" if French peacekeepers in Central African Republic were found guilty of raping hungry children in exchange for food.

According to a French judicial source, several children -- the youngest just nine -- allege that 14 French soldiers dispatched to the impoverished nation to restore order after a 2013 coup were involved in sexually abusing some of them in exchange for food.

Of those soldiers, "very few" have actually been identified, and those that have have still not been questioned, added the source, who wished to remain anonymous.

Media report state:
Hollande told reporters, "If some soldiers have behaved badly, I will show no mercy."

The defence ministry denied attempting to cover up a potentially devastating scandal following revelations it had been made aware of the allegations in July last year when it received a leaked report compiled by UN officials stationed in the chaotic African country.

- France investigates allegation of child abuse by its troops in Central Africa -

France is investigating allegations of child abuse in Central African Republic by soldiers that it sent there to stem an outbreak of sectarian killing, officials said on Wednesday.

The alleged abuse took place between December 2013 and June 2014 at a centre for displaced people at M'Poko airport in the capital Bangui, and concerned about 10 children, France's Defence Ministry said.

"A preliminary investigation by the Paris prosecutor has been open since July 31, 2014," a Justice Ministry spokesman said. "The investigation is ongoing." A Defence Ministry source said no suspects had yet been identified.

France intervened in Central Africa, a former French colony, some 18 months ago to stem violence between Christian militias and largely Muslim Seleka rebels who had seized power. It started withdrawing some of its 2,000 troops this year, handing over to U.N. peacekeepers.

The allegations are acutely embarrassing for a country that prides itself on its ability to despatch rapid intervention forces, notably as a way of maintaining stability and French influence in its former African colonies.

Britain's Guardian newspaper said it had acquired a U.N. report that first raised allegations of the rape of young boys by French troops.

A French judicial source said the prosecutor's office had received that report in July 2014, and had asked for assistance from Central African authorities in investigating whether there had been abuse of minors.

A spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon confirmed that the U.N. Office of Human Rights in Bangui had conducted a human rights investigation in the late spring of 2014.

It said the probe followed serious allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse of children by French military personnel, before the establishment of a U.N. peacekeeping mission.

It said the unedited version of the internal report had been leaked to French authorities in late July, even before it had been passed to senior U.N. officials, and that a Geneva-based U.N. official had been suspended for a "serious breach of protocol".

France's defence and foreign ministries issued a joint statement saying that "all necessary measures" would be taken to establish the truth, and that "the toughest sanctions" would be applied to anyone proven to be guilty of abuse.

- 'Not hiding the facts' -

The abuse reportedly took place at a centre for displaced people near the airport of the Central African capital Bangui between December 2013 -- when the French operation began -- and June 2014.

The defence ministry said it immediately launched a probe into the case, sending police investigators to the former French colony on August 1 after receiving the news, but the damning allegations nevertheless only emerged this week when The Guardian newspaper broke the story.

"There is no desire to hide anything," Pierre Bayle, a defence ministry spokesman, told reporters on Thursday.

"We are not hiding the facts, we are trying to verify the facts," he added, while urging "great caution" over accusations that have yet to be proven.

According to The Guardian, the UN employee accused of the leak, Swedish national Anders Kompass, turned the report over to French authorities because his bosses had failed to take action.

UN spokesman Farhan Haq confirmed that UN rights investigators had conducted a probe last year following "serious allegations" of child abuse and sexual exploitation by French troops.

But unnamed UN officials said Kompass leaked the confidential document to the French even before it was shown to officials in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, suggesting they were not aware of the report's findings when it was leaked.

Central African prosecutors meanwhile said they had not been made aware of an investigation into alleged child abuse and had launched a probe after this week's revelations.

"It's not because we're in a crisis-ridden country that the law can be flouted," said Prosecutor Ghislain Gresenguet.

The report allegedly details interviews with children who approached French soldiers to ask for food.

"The children were saying that they were hungry and they thought that they could get some food from the soldiers. The answer was 'if you do this, then I will give you food'," said Paula Donovan, co-director of advocacy group AIDS-Free World that saw the report and gave it to The Guardian.

"Different kids used different language."

The French judicial source said that of the six children testifying against the soldiers, four say they were direct victims of sexual abuse while two others witnessed abuse.

- Fears for CAR peace efforts -

If true, the allegations will not only affect the French army but also the Central African Republic itself, which is trying to find a way out of a long conflict that has killed thousands and displaced nearly 900,000 people.

The violence has largely pitted the Christian majority against mainly Muslim Seleka rebels who led the March 2013 coup against former leader Francois Bozize.

"Overall, I know that the French military presence has been helpful," said David Smith, an expert on the Central African Republic.

"If they hadn't been there, the airport couldn't have stayed open and that would have meant no emergency aid could have come in, no medical supplies, food...

"The French kept the road between the port of Douala in Cameroon and Bangui open as well, also allowing emergency supplies to come in."

"The hopes for success with the peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic are weak at the best of times. Moving the French out of there would make it even weaker," he added.

The Central African Republic had yet to react officially, but a government member who wished to remain anonymous said that if true, the allegations were "horrible and unacceptable. French soldiers cannot behave like this in a country where they came to help civilians."