UN denies sexual abuse against UN peacekeepers in South Sudan
June 11, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — The United Nation Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) denied allegations of sexual abuse against UN peacekeepers in the southern part of the country reported by a local newspaper last month from London based the Daily Telegraph.
The UNMIS has been the target of two false media allegations of sexual misconduct by UNMIS peacekeepers during the course of 2007. UNMIS takes allegations of this nature very seriously as per the UN policy of zero tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse.
On 8 May 2007, the Sudanese paper Akhir Lahza claimed on its front page that an UNMIS peacekeeper was the perpetrator of a sexual assault against a child in Wau, the western Bahr al-Ghazal state in southern Sudan.
Following a detailed investigation by the independent UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), no evidence of an incident of sexual abuse in Wau, as described by Akhir Lhaza, was uncovered. This was confirmed by local police and hospital services.
The UNMIS said that the Sudanese Akhir Laza retracted its story after being unable to provide evidence. “Akhir Laza also issued an apology to UNMIS and to its readers for publication of the original article.”
In its apology, Akhir Laza reminded its readers that it published the original story, following a story which appeared earlier in the year, in the UK newspaper, The Daily Telegraph. That story had also alleged that minor age children in Juba had been raped by UNMIS peacekeepers.
UNMIS disclosed r that, since this story appeared in January 2007, OIOS investigators have repeatedly requested The Daily Telegraph’s editor and lawyers to provide them with evidence of the allegations. “To date, the newspaper has refused to co-operate, leading the investigators to believe that no such evidence exists.”
False allegations against the United Nations published in the press “may have a political motive and/intended to discredit the UN and its Mission in Sudan.” The UN statement underlined.
The 10,000-strong UN peacekeeping force was deployed in southern Sudan following the signing of a peace agreement between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in 2005 to end the 21-year civil war in this African country.