UN peacekeepers & sexual misconduct- not 'boys will be boys' ?

OK, I saw a doco on DATELINE a few yrs ago which was all about Cambodia, which had become a disaster with a dictatorial Hun Sen regime & an AIDS epidemic in the aftermath of the UNTAC mission during 1992-93 (& which had been claimed at the time as a 'monumental success'). 1 of the major reasons of course for Cambodia being so badly hit by AIDS was due to the sexual promiscuity of many blue berets- esp from 3rd World countries, with the Bulgarians in particularly being notorious- which, together with Cambodia being so isolated from the outside world until that time, contributed to a massive AIDS outbreak- the UN response at the time was typified by Special Rep Yashushi Akashi who, when informed of reports of UN sexual misconduct, responded 'boys will be boys'. However, WI the UN had somehow, instead of adopting Akashi's blithely dismissive attitude, taken action at that early time to at least try to persuade its peacekeepers from contributor states to moderate their sexual behaviour ? Could such an early approach to sexual issues have potentially avoided or at least ameliorated the shocking record of blue beret/blue helmet sexual misconduct which has tarnished numerous UN PKOs over the last decade ?
 

MacCaulay

Banned
Well, the big problem is that normally the UN doesn't have much legal oversight against the peacekeepers.

If the UN could prosecute peacekeeping troops under it's flag for things they did, then they'd never get an American or French soldier near them. That's just how those things work. Oddly enough, there was a Canadian soldier that blew the whole Cambodian thing's lid off when he roughed up the Minister of Trade and Tourism, thinking he was cruising for business at a whorehouse. And the Canadians are probably one of the few folks who would be honest enough to be willing to let their troopers be given up for what they've done.

But...let's suppose this happened. This guy gets brought up on charges in Cambodia, since that's where it would've happened, or Canada through some legal wrangling because he's a Canadian citizen. There were Australians, Japanese, and Ukrainian nationals involved, too.

When something like this happened a few years later in Somalia (I'm speaking of the killing of an unarmed Somali at a Canadian Airborne Regiment camp), they disbanded they whole damn Regiment.

This guy? They wouldn't have done it over that. The whole unit (I believe he was from the RCR, but I'm not sure) wasn't spearheading UNTAC like the CAR was spearheading the mission to Somalia.

So...courtmartials. Publically.

And the Airborne Regiment, after their bit of viciousness in Somalia, doesn't get that one brief glimpse of hope by being sent to Rwanda, and then being put on the rotation for Bosnia before being ripped limb from limb.
 
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