No Indian among UN peacekeepers accused of abuse

PTI

Published : Mar 6, 2016, 4:50 am IST

Updated : Mar 6, 2016, 4:50 am IST

Nearly 100 allegations of sexual exploitation across 69 countries were received by the UN against its peacekeepers in 2015 with no Indian personnel invol-ved in any wrongdoing, according to the world

Nearly 100 allegations of sexual exploitation across 69 countries were received by the UN against its peacekeepers in 2015 with no Indian personnel invol-ved in any wrongdoing, according to the world body’s new report.

Most number of peac-ekeepers accused of se-xual abuse in 2015 were from Congo, Morocco, South Africa, Camer-oon, Rwanda and Tanz-ania, the UN said in its latest report on special measures to protect pe-ople from crimes of sexual abuse and exploitation. There were 99 allegations of sexual explo-itation and abuse uncovered by the UN in 2015, the report said. No Indians were among the peacekeepers accused of sexual abuse.

“I’m ashamed to call myself a peacekeeper on some of these days when I see cases like this,” UN under secretary-general for field support Atul Khare said referring to the pregnancy of a 13-year-old girl as he presented the findings of the report.

“What we need to do is not detract from the good work which is done by hundreds of thousands of peacekeepers. We need to find these culprits who bring a bad name to peacekeeping, who actually create problems within the country in which they find themselves, and most importantly who destroy young innocent lives. And we need to punish them in a certain manner that nobody else in the future will ever think of doing that,” he said.

India has strongly co-ndemned the cases of sexual exploitation carried out by peacekeepers and stressed that it has a zero tolerance policy towards such conduct. India has 7,798 peacekeepers in 10 UN missions across the world. India’s permanent representative to the UN Syed Akbaruddin had told a session in February that “my delegation is appalled by the recent cases of sexual exploitation and abuse which have surfaced in some of the UN peacekeeping operations.”

“My delegation strongly condemns these unpardonable acts when the protector becomes the perpetrator. We have a zero tolerance policy on such cases and would like that there is zero tolerance on such issues across the UN too,” he had said.