United Nations Alleged Sexual Exploitation

The United Nations has investigated more than 300 members of UN peacekeeping missions for alleged sexual exploitation and abuse during the past three years and more than half were fired or sent home, according to a senior UN official.

The Daily Telegraph report alleged UN personnel in southern Sudan were involved in sexual exploitation and abuse of more than 20 children.

With close to 200,000 people representing more than 100 countries rotating through the peacekeeping missions every year, some people "are going to behave badly," Jane Holl Lute told a news conference. "What's different now is our determination to stay with this problem and constantly improve our ability to deal with it."

Between January 2004 and the end of November 2006, Lute said, the UN investigated allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse involving 319 peacekeeping personnel "in all missions," from East Timor, the Middle East and Africa to Kosovo and Haiti.

This resulted in the summary dismissal of 18 civilians and the repatriation of 17 international police and 144 military personnel, she said.

According to the Department of Peacekeeping, during the first 10 months of 2006, 63 percent of all misconduct allegations involving peacekeeping personnel were related to sexual exploitation and abuse, a third of them to prostitution.

While allegations of abuse have dogged peacekeeping missions since their inception more than 50 years ago, the issue was thrust into the spotlight after the United Nations found in early 2005 that peacekeepers in Congo had sex with Congolese women and girls, usually in exchange for food or small sums of money.

Jordan's UN Ambassador Prince Zeid al Hussein wrote a report several months later that described the UN military arm as deeply flawed and recommended withholding the salaries of the guilty and requiring nations to pursue legal action against perpetrators. It said abuses had been reported in missions ranging from Bosnia and Kosovo to Cambodia, East Timor, West Africa and Congo.