New and ever-more damning reports on sexual abuse of refugees by United Nations "peacekeepers" in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

And South African soliders are at the heart of it, aided and abetted by detached U. N. officials who've been aware of sexual abuse there since at least late-October, 2003. Instead of clamping down, they've allowed it to worsen.

South African soldiers have been accused of involvement in a massive sex abuse scandal in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where they are on peace-keeping duties.

The allegations include a staggering 50 cases of sex attacks on minors over the past year, carried out by Monuc, the United Nations mission to the DRC, in Bunia in the north-east.

Among the claims are:

'He ripped off my dress and made me do it with him;'

that young girls have been raped by mainly South African and Indian soldiers, who lured them with sweets;

that soldiers are running child prostitution and pornography rings;

that a South African colonel was sent home after being found guilty of molesting his young male interpreter. He had requested under-18 males to act as his interpreters since the start of the mission.

These scandalous acts have allegedly been going on for months without anything being done. Now the UN has sent a special team to the DRC to investigate the allegations.

....On June 8, a cablegram was sent from the Monuc office in Kinshasa to UN headquarters in New York. The message, a copy of which has been obtained by The Independent, details sexual abuses against minors allegedly carried out by Monuc troops in Bunia.

A week later, a second cablegram was sent, recording four more allegations and adding that special attention should be paid to the behaviour of South African Monuc troops in Kindu, Moroccan Monuc troops in Kinsangani and Monuc troops from Uruguay, Pakistan and Nepal.

On June 14, a UN team from the Office of Internal and Oversight Services arrived in Bunia to investigate allegations of sexual abuse of children. Their probe is "ongoing".

So far this year, 68 complaints against Monuc soldiers have been recorded.

Perhaps sometime before the next 68 complaints of sexual abuse are lodged, the U.N. will take action to prevent its "peacekeepers" from raping and sexually exploiting refugees in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at July 16, 2004 09:37 AM

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