The Uselessness of the UN (cont.)

The UN is finding that it has a difficult time controlling the sexual appetites of its peacekeepers:

In the months he had been in charge of rooting out sexual abuse by U.N. peacekeepers, Prince Zeid Raad Hussein of Jordan thought the organization was getting a handle on the problem. But on the same day this year that the United Nations' top peacekeeping official and the head of Congo's U.N. mission were visiting the eastern town of Bunia, a soldier raped a girl "practically within earshot" of the two senior officials, he said. "I thought to myself, 'My God, what would it take for that man not to do it?' " Zeid recalled.

Even when they implement rules they are often broken (there's a surprise):

Last year, the U.N. instituted a policy of "zero contact," barring any interaction between civilians and U.N. soldiers in Congo, and newly arriving troops are warned that they could be sent home if they break the rules. U.N. Codes of Conduct are posted in barracks and U.N. offices.

"No one can say they don't know what the standards were," said Anna Shotton, a U.N. peacekeeping official who has been driving the organization's efforts to address the problem and cooperated with the report.

In the last year, U.N. investigators have completed inquiries into 221 complaints in Congo; repatriated 88 soldiers, including six commanders; and fired 10 civilian staffers, Shotton said.

It does not appear that anything is going to change anytime soon:

The U.N. has promulgated new rules after previous scandals, such as one in 2001 in which Bosnian policemen were found to be helping to traffic women to work as prostitutes, or another in 2002 in West Africa, where relief supplies were traded for sex. But they have wrought little permanent change.

This time, a team of U.N. officials and nongovernmental organizations is trying to dismantle both the structures and the attitudes that breed the abuse. Now in Bunia, the barracks are far away, and many of the bars and restaurants where soldiers would meet women are off-limits.

Sarah Martin, the author of the report, said that in her trips to 11 countries, the comments she heard from United Nations troops revealed how entrenched attitudes were, and how difficult they could be to change: It's not rape if the woman is a prostitute. The women pound on our doors and solicit us. The women can use their bodies how they want. Why ruin someone's career just for having sex? Boys will be boys.

"People need to understand why it is important not to take advantage of a population traumatized by conflict," Martin said. Until they do, "the zero-tolerance policy does not make sense to them, and the problems will go on."

Paul Volker and John Bolton spoke before Congress yesterday touting the need for reform in the UN. They both advocated cutting off funding to the UN to force reform but only with the cooperation of other states.