IVORY COAST: U.N. suspends Moroccan contingent in Ivory Coast while allegations of sexual abuse are investigated

Moroccan U.N. peacekeepers in Ivory Coast are alleged to have sexually abused girls as young as 13 over a three-year period as units rotated through the West African country, U.N. officials said. The United Nations suspended a Moroccan military contingent of 734 soldiers from its peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast while it investigated allegations of widespread sexual abuse, the world body said on Saturday (July 21). Two U.N. officials identified the peacekeepers under investigation as Moroccans and one said entire contingents had been involved with the young girls passed from unit after unit, resulting in the birth of illegitimate children. The abuses were carried out at Boake, the U.N. said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Hamadoun Toure, spokesman for the U.N. mission in Ivory Coast (ONUCI) said: "We conducted an investigation on the level of United Nations operation in Cote D'Ivoire, Bouake, following allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse allegedly committed by our contingent there. Due to the serious allegations the decision was taken just to freeze all operational activities of the contingent and also to confine the troops to the barracks." Toure said the allegations had come to light after the mission ran a campaign against sexual exploitation in which it asked local people to inform it about abuses. It then sent a team to carry out interviews and gather information after locals began to make complaints. The Ivory Coast mission numbers just over 9,000 uniformed personnel from more than 40 countries. Moroccans make up the bulk of the force in Bouake with some Bangladeshi police, Pakistani engineers and Ghanaian medical personnel. The peacekeepers, backed by troops from former colonial power France, are in the world's top cocoa grower to support a peace process that was revived in March by an agreement between President Laurent Gbagbo and rebel leader Guillaume Soro. Over the last few years as peacekeeping has expanded, reports of abuse have mounted in various African nations, especially the Democratic Republic of the Congo, despite the "zero-tolerance" policy declared by the United Nations. All U.N. Blue Helmets are banned from having sexual relations with locals and those serving in Ivory Coast attend training seminars on its code of conduct for peacekeepers. The United Nations can investigate but is powerless to punish perpetrators, who can be sent home for prosecution. Moroccan troops were involved in sexual abuse in eastern Congo and two years ago the Rabat government arrested six soldiers. A 2005 U.N. report said peacekeeping soldiers should be punished for any sexual abuse, their pay docked and a fund set up to assist any women and girls they impregnated. But many member nations have not agreed.

ITN Source | July 22, 2007

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