ARTICLE - AMNESTY - UN MUST REVIEW POLICY

UN MUST REVIEW POLICY ON PEACEKEEPERS WHO ABUSE - AMNESTY
(Alertnet) - By Nita Bhalla

NEW DELHI - A one-year jail term given to three Pakistani U.N. peacekeepers for raping a boy in Haiti is a "travesty of justice", said human rights group Amnesty International, urging the world body to tighten its policy on blue helmets guilty of such abuses.

Judges from a Pakistani military tribunal held a trial in Haiti which last week found three peacekeepers had raped a 14-year-old boy in the northern city of Gonaives on Jan. 20.

The three men – who were members of the Pakistani Formed Police Unit serving with the 12,000-strong U.N. Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) – were summarily discharged from the military and sentenced to a year behind bars in their homeland.

But London-based Amnesty said the punishment handed down was too lenient.

"Very little information is available on this case and the nature of the sexual assault. But what is clear is a military trial conducted in virtual secrecy that resulted in a one-year sentence is utterly unacceptable and a travesty of justice," said Javier Zúñiga, special adviser at Amnesty International.

"Cases of sexual abuse should never be dealt with in military courts, rather in civilian courts prepared to deal with human rights issues."

MINUSTAH has faced a growing image problem in Haiti, with some of its members accused of being responsible for introducing a deadly cholera epidemic in 2010, following the earthquake there. The January 2010 quake in the Caribbean nation, the biggest urban disaster in modern history, killed more than 200,000 people and left another 1.5 million homeless.

U.N. SEXUAL ABUSE SCANDALS

Also, several peacekeepers from Uruguay were accused of raping a young Haitian man last year, after video footage of the abuse was posted on the Internet.

The cases have fuelled public protests and demands that members of the U.N. force be stripped of their immunity and face trial in Haitian courts.

Over the last decade, several U.N. peacekeepers – part of an 110,000-strong force deployed in hot spots across the world – have been implicated in sexual violence against innocent civilians.

From the remote, forested villages of eastern Congo, to the streets of Ivory Coast's capital, Abidjan, unimaginable reports have surfaced of the blue helmets – trusted to protect populations – raping local women and abusing children.

In 2005, reports emerged of Nepalese peacekeepers, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), being accused of using food and money to pay girls as young as 12 to have sex with them.

Earlier, in 2001, Jordanian peacekeepers in East Timor were reportedly involved in sexually exploiting young Timorese boys and raping women.

A study that charity Save the Children conducted in 2008, in the then southern Sudan (now South Sudan), Haiti and Ivory Coast, found widespread sexual abuse of children, some as young as six, by peacekeepers as well as aid workers.

Senior U.N. officials say such instances are rare, adding that they are in no way comparable to the systematic atrocities committed in places like the DRC by armed groups and national armies during a conflict.

VIRTUAL IMPUNITY

Officials say training peacekeepers on the issue of sexual violence is conducted prior to deployment, but, with a turnover of 300,000 troops annually, resources at the U.N. are challenged.

They add that while the U.N. advocates a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual misconduct, there are limitations on what it can do to punish the guilty.

Contributions of peacekeepers by member states are voluntary and while the U.N. can dismiss and repatriate a soldier, there is no forum to prosecute these blue helmets – leaving it up to their home countries to follow-up.

But human rights activists say there is little investigation, let alone prosecution by national governments when the accused soldier returns, and most remain working in the military or police service.

The U.N. has no power to impose any follow-up, activists say, adding that the 114 nations that contribute peacekeepers are a tremendous resource that the global organisation can ill-afford to upset, given the numerous conflicts around the world.

Amnesty urged the U.N. to be more transparent about the case of the three Pakistani peacekeepers and called on the world body to review its policy to ensure justice for victims of sexual misconduct by soldiers in peacekeeping missions.

"The U.N. must inform the public about the exact circumstances of this crime, and the extent to which these peacekeepers and possibly others were involved," said Zúñiga.

"We also need to know what investigation has taken place, the judicial process that was followed and about any compensation for the victim and his family."

(Editing by Rebekah Curtis)