Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Report: Abuse Of Children Widespread In War Zones

From Yahoo News:

LONDON - A Save the Children UK report released Tuesday alleges rampant sexual abuse of children at the hands of peacekeepers and international aid workers in war zones and disaster areas.

The report said more than half the children interviewed knew of cases of coerced sex and improper sexual touching, and that in many instances children knew of 10 or more such incidents carried out by aid workers or peacekeepers.

In some cases, children as young as 6 years old were abused, the report said.

Read more ....

Other Links:
Official Site -- Save The Children
Peacekeepers 'abusing children' -- BBC News
Child abuse by aidworkers, peacekeepers rife-study -- Reuters
United Nations Peacekeepers Abuse Children -- Express Yourself
UN Fails to protect -- The Acec

My Comment: This report follows claims that abuses by Indian and Pakistani soldiers were ‘watered down’ by the UN for fear of offending two of the biggest contributors to its peacekeeping missions (hat tip Talk Islam). The S. O. S. Blog states it bluntly -- Widespread child sex abuse by UN.

The unfortunate fact is that the U.N. has a long history of not dwelling too much on issues that would embarrass it. This will also be put under the rug.

Over time the abuse of children in religious schools, orphanages, and churches became known, I know that abuses by U.N. soldiers and Aid workers will also be known when these children are grown up. But the damage has already been done.

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