UN probes sex abuse claims
Print Edition
THE United Nations’ human rights chief has urged several countries to step up efforts to investigate allegations that peacekeepers in the Central African Republic might have committed abuses following reports of assaults on children by French troops.
Zeid Raad al-Hussein said in a statement yesterday that following the French investigation his office has taken a deeper look into the extent to which allegations of serious rights violations by soldiers in “several other international contingents” in an African peacekeeping force last year were followed up. He didn’t name any countries.
The statement said the allegations concerning soldiers from other countries were “very serious” and ranged from abductions to rape and even executions.
The appeal came after 14 French soldiers were put under investigation on suspicion of sexually abusing minors in return for food at a center 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,” he said.
Apart from asking the countries involved to track down and punish offenders, his office was sending an investigating team to Bangui, he said.
Although France sent police to investigate the claims after receiving a UN report in August, no children or soldiers were questioned and the information was not made public.
It was only after the UK’s Guardian newspaper reported on the affair last month that a full, public investigation was launched.
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