Sex Misconduct : UN credibility should not be compromised
By John Angol Korodit,
Jan 7, 2007 —
1. Reports in the media, notably Sudan Tribune Online and London’s
Daily Telegraph, have alerted us to the problem of UN personnel raping
and engaging in prostitution youths in Southern Sudan. This is a
shocking development, though apparently the price we are bound to pay
for hosting the UN in Southern Sudan. We recognize that the UN draws
its personnel from all over the world, which perhaps implies that what
has happened in Southern Sudan, by no means an isolated incident, is a
contemporary human dilemma.
2. As disturbing as the reports of UN staff raping children in Southern
Sudan is, the most disturbing part is that while evidence shows that
this nefarious conduct was officially brought to the UN’s attention as
early as 2005, shortly after the peacekeepers arrived, UNMIS regional
coordinator James Ellery not only as recently as last May refuted the
claims but referred to Sudan in very insulting, undiplomatic terms. In
fact, it appears that he lied when he told the press last May that the
claims of UN personnel having sex, forced or otherwise, with Southern
Sudanese youths had been investigated and “there was no substantiating evidence.”
3. Britain’s daily Telegraph reported seeing a draft of an internal
report complied by Unicef in July 2005 detailing the problem of child
sexual abuse by UN staff in Southern Sudan. In other words, that report
was nearly a year old at the time the UNMIS’ regional coordinator
denied that there was anything of the kind, unprofessionally referring
to Sudan as the most backwards place in the world, where rumors were
rampant. However, it is no secret that Southern Sudanese welcomed the
UN as peacekeepers and, moreover, while there is no place in the world
free from rumors I would like to say to Mr. Ellery that the homosexual
rapes attributed to UNMIS military personnel in Juba is a phenomenon
alien to our culture and unimaginable to most of our people.
4. We can appreciate Mr. Ellery’s insistence that the UN demands a very
high code of moral conduct from its staff and that briefings are
regularly given in which it is made clear that no UN personnel are to
have any sexual contact with local people, but we also know that UNMIS
has an HIV/AIDS officer who counsels its staff, which implies that
despite the code of conduct UNMIS does take into consideration the
possibility that its personnel are breaking the rules.
5. We also appreciate the firm stance taken by incoming Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who gave assurances that the UN position on sexual misconduct by its staff is “zero tolerance, meaning zero complacency and zero impunity,” and we respectfully acknowledge his assurances that the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services is active on the ground in Southern Sudan.
6. However, in respect of Sudan’s membership in the United
Nations, I would like to advise the new Secretary General to pay
particular attention to the moral rot in the world body. Blue Helmet
misconduct is one thing, because these are soldiers donated by their
home countries, but when UN personnel are accused of pedophilia in
Congo, where so many of them lost their jobs following investigations,
and then in Southern Sudan with the regional UNMIS regional coordinator flatly denying this ugly reality in terms abusive of Sudan and its people, we are concerned that our world organization is losing its
credibility. Whatever political disagreements we may have with the UN
from time to time, considering that the UN has many non-political
programs such as UNDP, UNESCO, Unicef, WHO, WFP and FAO, we don’t think it would be in the global interest for UN credibility to sink.
* The author is the State Minister of the Ministry of Federal Governance of Sudan.