France investigating alleged child sex abuse by its troops in C.Africa

[Ibisevic]

France investigating alleged child sex abuse by its troops in C.Africa

AFP
April 30, 2015, 5:22 am

France investigating alleged sexual abuse by its troops in C.Africa The French government became aware of the complaints at the end of July 2014 Photo:AFP

Paris (AFP) - Authorities in France are investigating claims that French peacekeepers sexually abused children in the Central African Republic, the government said Wednesday, with reports claiming victims as young as nine were raped in exchange for food and money.

The French government "was made aware at the end of July 2014 by the UN's high commission for human rights of accusations by children that they had been sexually abused by French soldiers," the defence ministry said in a statement.

An investigation was opened shortly after by Paris prosecutors, it said.

"The defence ministry has taken and will take the necessary measures to allow the truth to be found," the statement added.

"If the facts are proven, the strongest penalties will be imposed on those responsible for what would be an intolerable attack on soldiers' values."

The abuse was alleged by around 10 children, the ministry said, and reportedly took place at a centre for internally displaced people near the airport of the capital Bangui between December 2013 and June 2014.

A report in Britain's The Guardian newspaper said children as young as nine were involved, and that some were abused while searching desperately for food or money.

The paper said a senior UN aid worker had been suspended for leaking an internal report into the abuse.

UN spokesman Farhan Haq confirmed that its rights investigators had conducted a probe last year following "serious allegations" of child abuse and sexual exploitation by French troops, and had suspended a staff member for leaking the report in July.

- 'Appalling disregard for victims' -

The internal report was commissioned by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and passed on The Guardian via advocacy group Aids Free World.

"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," Paula Donovan, co-director of Aids Free World, told The Guardian.

"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," she added.

The report was commissioned amid fears of sexual abuse against children last year as tens of thousands were displaced by fighting and unrest in the country.

The UN aid worker, Swedish national Anders Kompass, is based in Geneva and leaked the report to French authorities because his bosses had failed to take action, The Guardian reported.

He has been suspended and faces dismissal for breaching protocol, the paper said.

While the UN did not identify the source of the leak, it asserted that a "such conduct does not constitute whistleblowing", according to their preliminary assessment.

Kompass is said to have passed on the confidential document before it was presented to senior officials in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

"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," said Haq.

The Swedish foreign ministry said it was aware of Kompass's suspension, which it described as "worrying".

"The UN must have zero tolerance of sexual abuse of children and must push to investigate any such suspicions," said its chief legal counsel Anders Ronquist.

The French government said prosecutors had "immediately" opened a case into the abuse after receiving the news last year, and that police investigators had travelled to the Central African Republic on August 1 to look into the case.

France sent troops to the impoverished, landlocked nation in December 2013 as the country became engulfed in violence following a coup in March that toppled longtime leader Francois Bozize.

The UN approved its own MINUSCA mission the following April, which was fully operational by September.

Since December 2013, violence has displaced nearly 900,000 people in the Central African Republic, including more than 460,000 who have become refugees -- a full 10 percent of the population.

About half of the country's people live in severe poverty and need humanitarian aid, while 1.5 million are considered food insecure, according to the UN.

 

[Ibisevic]

'No mercy' if French troops guilty of child sex abuse: Hollande

AFP
May 1, 2015, 5:37 am

Paris (AFP) - President Francois Hollande on Thursday vowed to "show no mercy" if French peacekeepers in the Central African Republic are found guilty of sexually assaulting hungry children in exchange for food.

According to a French judicial source, 14 soldiers dispatched to the chaos-ridden nation to restore order after a 2013 coup are implicated in a probe into the alleged sexual abuse of several children there -- the youngest just nine -- who had begged for something to eat.

"If some soldiers have behaved badly, I will show no mercy," Hollande told reporters a day after The Guardian newspaper broke the story.

Soldiers from Chad and Equatorial Guinea are also accused in the leaked UN report that implicates French troops, said Paula Donovan of the AIDS-Free World advocacy group.

"One of the children interviewed said that he had seen his friend, aged 9 or 10, with 2 soldiers from Equatorial Guinea," Donovan told AFP by e-mail.

"The friend performed fellatio and was sodomised by one soldier while the other kept watch, and then the soldiers exchanged roles."

Another child "reported witnessing his friend being sodomised by two Chadian soldiers while a third Chadian soldier watched," she added.

- 'Not hiding the facts' -

The French defence ministry denied attempting to cover up the potentially devastating scandal following revelations it was made aware of the allegations in July last year when it received the leaked UN report on the subject.

The abuse reportedly took place at a centre for displaced people near the airport of the Central African capital Bangui between December 2013 -- when the French operation began -- and June 2014.

"The children were saying that they were hungry and they thought that they could get some food from the soldiers. The answer was 'if you do this, then I will give you food'," said Donovan, co-director of AIDS-Free World.

The French judicial source said that of the six children testifying against the soldiers, four say they were direct victims of sexual abuse while two others witnessed it.

The ministry said it immediately launched a probe into the case when it received the news, sending investigators to the former French colony last August, but the damning allegations only emerged this week in British newspaper The Guardian.

"There is no desire to hide anything," Pierre Bayle, a defence ministry spokesman, told reporters on Thursday.

"We are trying to verify the facts," he added, while urging "great caution" over accusations that have yet to be proven.

According to The Guardian, the UN employee accused of the leak, Swedish national Anders Kompass, turned the report over to French authorities because his bosses had failed to take action, and has since been suspended.

UN spokesman Farhan Haq confirmed that UN rights investigators had conducted a probe last year following "serious allegations" of child abuse and sexual exploitation by French troops, and that an unnamed staff member had been suspended for leaking the report.

AIDS-Free World is pushing for a commission of inquiry to shed light on sexual misconduct by peacekeepers and has accused the UN of covering up crimes committed by troops sent in to protect civilians.

If verified, this would not be the first sexual abuse scandal to hit peacekeeping forces -- examples abound, including in Haiti, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast and Somalia.

- Fears for CAR peace efforts -

If true, the allegations will not only affect the French army but also the Central African Republic itself, which is trying to find a way out of a conflict that has killed thousands and displaced nearly 900,000 people.

The violence has largely pitted the Christian majority against mainly Muslim Seleka rebels who led the March 2013 coup against former leader Francois Bozize.

"Overall, I know that the French military presence has been helpful," said David Smith, an expert on the Central African Republic.

"If they hadn't been there, the airport couldn't have stayed open and that would have meant no emergency aid could have come in, no medical supplies, food...

"The hopes for success with the peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic are weak at the best of times. Moving the French out of there would make it even weaker," he added.

The Central African Republic was yet to react officially, but a government member who wished to remain anonymous said that if true, the allegations were "horrible and unacceptable."

"French soldiers cannot behave like this in a country where they came to help civilians."