France promises to act after leaked UN report says its soldiers abused children
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Version 0 of 1. France promised to act on Wednesday on a leaked United Nations report exposing the alleged abuse of young boys by its peacekeepers in the Central African Republic. Related: UN aid worker suspended for leaking report on child abuse by French troops The French authorities’ statement was in contrast to comments from the UN, which is threatening to sack the senior official who blew the whistle on the scandal. In its first detailed statement on the matter, the UN said an official was under investigation for breaching its protocols by disclosing an unredacted internal report. The official, Anders Kompass, a senior UN aid worker, has been suspended for passing the internal report detailing the rape and sodomy of boys as young as nine to the French authorities to take action. Sources close to the case say Kompass passed the information to the French – who had jurisdiction over the soldiers – because of the failure by the UN to take action to stop the abuse. The French government said it began an investigation in August last year after receiving the report detailing allegations of abuse by around 10 children at the hands of its soldiers. “The defence ministry has taken and will take all necessary measures to ensure the truth comes out,” said a joint statement from the French defence and foreign ministries. “If proved true, it will ensure that the toughest sanctions are imposed on those responsible for what would be a terrible breach of the values of a soldier.” Kompass, who is based in Geneva, was suspended from his post as director of field operations last week and accused of leaking a confidential UN report and breaching protocols. He is now under investigation by the UN office for internal oversight service (OIOS) amid warnings from a senior official that access to his case must be “severely restricted”. He faces dismissal. The treatment of the aid worker, who has been involved in humanitarian work for more than 30 years, has taken place with the knowledge of senior UN officials, including Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the high commissioner for human rights, and Susana Malcorra, chef de cabinet in the UN, according to documents relating to the case. The alleged abuses took place in 2014 when the UN mission in the country, Minusca, was in the process of being set up. Related: France's poisoned legacy in the Central African Republic The Guardian has been passed the internal report on the sexual exploitation by Paula Donovan, co-director of the advocacy group Aids Free World, who is demanding an independent commission inquiry into the UN’s handling of sexual abuse by peacekeepers. It was commissioned by the UN office of the high commissioner for human rights after reports on the ground that children, who are among the tens of thousands displaced by the fighting, were being sexually abused. Entitled Sexual Abuse on Children by International Armed Forces and stamped “confidential” on every page, the report details the rape and sodomy of starving and homeless young boys by French peacekeeping troops who were supposed to be protecting them at a centre for internally displaced people in Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic. Donovan said: “The regular sex abuse by peacekeeping personnel uncovered here and the United Nations’ appalling disregard for victims are stomach-turning, but the awful truth is that this isn’t uncommon. The UN’s instinctive response to sexual violence in its ranks – ignore, deny, cover up, dissemble – must be subjected to a truly independent commission of inquiry with total access, top to bottom, and full subpoena power.” The UN has faced several scandals in the past relating to its failure to act over paedophile rings operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kosovo and Bosnia. It has also faced allegations of sexual misconduct by its troops in Haiti, Burundi and Liberia. The treatment of Kompass, a Swedish national, threatens to spark a major diplomatic row. According to communications seen by the Guardian, the Swedish ambassador to the UN warned senior officials that “it would not be a good thing if the high commissioner for human rights forced” Kompass to resign. Interviews with the children who disclosed sexual abuse at the hands of French peacekeepers were carried out between May and June last year by a member of staff from the office for the high commissioner of human rights and a Unicef specialist. The children identified represent just a snapshot of the numbers potentially being abused. Nothing in the report suggests that any of the children were safeguarded after disclosing the abuse. The boys, some of whom were orphans, described how they were sexually exploited, including being raped, between December 2013 and June 2014 by French troops at a centre for internally displaced people at M’Poko airport in Bangui. They said they were abused in return for food and money. One 11-year-old boy said he was abused when he went out looking for food. A nine-year-old described being sexually abused with his friend by two French soldiers at the IDP camp when they went to a checkpoint to look for something to eat. The child described how the soldiers forced him and his friend to carry out a sex act. The report describes how distressed the child was when disclosing the abuse and how he fled the camp in terror after the assault. Some of the children were able to give good descriptions of the soldiers involved. In summer 2014, the report was passed to officials within the office for the high commission of human rights in Geneva. When nothing happened, Kompass sent the report to the French authorities and they visited Bangui and began an investigation. It is understood a more senior UN official was made aware of Kompass’s actions and raised no objections at the time. Kompass’s emails have been seized as part of the investigation into the alleged leak. One senior UN official has said of Kompass that “it was his duty to know and comply” with UN protocols on confidential documents. The UN said on Wednesday a staff member had admitted giving French authorities an unredacted report on an investigation into alleged sexual abuses by French soldiers in the Central African Republic. “The unedited version was, by a staff member’s own admission, provided unofficially by that staff member to the French authorities in late July, prior to even providing it to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ (OHCHR) senior management,” said a spokesman for the U.N. Secretary-General. “This constitutes a serious breach of protocol, which, as is well known to all OHCHR officials, requires redaction of any information that could endanger victims, witnesses and investigators.” The UN did not reveal what action if any it had taken to safeguard any of the children identified in its internal report. Bea Edwards, of the Government Accountability Project, an international charity that supports whistleblowers, condemned the UN for its witchhunt against a whistleblower who had acted to stop the abuse of children. “We have represented many whistleblowers in the UN system over the years and in general the more serious the disclosure they make the more ferocious the retaliation,” said Edwards. “Despite the official rhetoric, there is very little commitment at the top of the organisation to protect whistleblowers and a strong tendency to politicise every issue no matter how urgent.” • This article was amended on 1 May 2015. A misleading photograph accompanying an earlier version has been replaced. |