The United Nations role as “peacekeeper” took another ugly hit today when a leaked State Department cable revealed that UN troops from Benin were caught trading food for sex with underage girls in the Ivory Coast.
The 2010 cable revealed that troops stationed in the town of Toulepleu, one of the wartorn nation’s most wartorn towns, had ongoing sex-for-food relationships with numerous girls, and some girls were also trading sex for shelter. The group Save the Children UK was involved in uncovering the abuse.
The UN confirmed the report and said that 16 Beninese soldiers were kicked out of the country and barred from serving in future UN operations after a yearlong investigation. Of the 16, however, 10 were commanders, and the UN blamed the commanders for not making it clear that the soldiers weren’t supposed to sexually abuse the girls in the town.
This is the latest in a long line of UN sex scandals, it isn’t even the first time UN troops were caught doing this sort of thing in the Ivory Coast. In 2007 Moroccan UN troops were expelled from the city of Bouake in northern Ivory Coast after the UN received similar complaints.
"sex-for-food relationships with numerous girls, and some girls were also trading sex for shelter"
Let's disregard the women liberatoristas and western sensibilities about "underage sex" (are we talking 21, 18, 16 or 14 here?) for a second: How is that "abuse"?
Seems like "trading" to me. Of course the UN guy is on best side as his "goods" are provided free-of-charge and airlifted in.
We also read:
"Parents were encouraging their daughters to sleep with the peacekeepers so they would provide for them, according to the cable"
I'm shocked!
Save the Children! Now you know what the UN humanitarians are saving them for.
Hey, at least they gave them something in exchange for their services. Most of the times, they just rape them and beat them up or kill them and then accuse them of trying to rape them. In the grand scheme of imperial things, this is progress.
Oh, and of course, when they say UN, they really, really mean US.
No, I think they really mean UN troops from Benin.
Noooooo we've never seen this before, never never never.
"Hey Joe- you got girlfriend?"
When I was in the Marines back in the early 80's, on field exercises in the Philippines (although I did not partake myself) we knew exactly what the blinking red and blue flashlights at night were advertising, and many Marines struck up temporary- very temporary- friendships with the 'bush bunnies'. You'd be surprised- or maybe not, for you veterans- just what you could do or have done in exchange for a C-ration meal or an MRE. Shocking? Not really. Sad? Definitely. But like it or not, sometimes it's the best solution for both parties- the "bush bunny" gets a decent meal, and the soldier gets some relief. In a larger sense, though, it's situational ethics at it's worst.
Otherwise, the French Foreign Legion had a novel solution, the Bordele Militaire de Campagne. Go ahead and look it up- you know you want to.