Latest update : 2016-04-05
French prosecutors on Tuesday opened a preliminary investigation into new allegations of sexual abuse committed by French UN peacekeeping soldiers based in the Central African Republic, a judiciary source said.
The prosecutors' office said the alleged acts took place in the eastern town of Dekoa between 2013 and 2015.
The United Nations on Thursday announced 108 new alleged victims of
sexual abuse, the vast majority of them minors, by peacekeepers in the
Central African Republic. The UN called "shocking to the core" a report
that three girls said a French military commander forced them to have
sex with a dog.
The revelations dramatically widened the scope of a sexual abuse
scandal that has persisted for months. France's UN ambassador, François
Delattre, last week called the allegations "sickening" and promised
"exemplary disciplinary action" if they are proven.
The UN human rights chief on Thursday also described the new
allegations of sexual abuse as "sickening" and called for investigations
that "leave no stone unturned".
"We are taking these allegations – some of which are particularly
odious – extremely seriously," Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a
statement.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Thursday that the UN
can't confirm the allegations involving a dog at this point but that
investigations continue.
The United Nations has been in the spotlight for months over dozens
of allegations of child rape and other sexual abuses by its
peacekeepers, especially those based in Central African Republic, which
has faced sectarian violence since 2013. There have been similar
allegations against the French force known as Sangaris, which operates
independently in CAR.
"We must face the fact that a number of troops sent to protect people
instead acted with hearts of darkness," Dujarric said Thursday.
The UN rights chief said last week that governments must do more to
stop the abuse and hold their troops accountable, "otherwise this awful
cycle of abuse will never end".
Dujarric said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has stressed that UN
actions must be matched by those of member states, "who alone have the
power to discipline their forces with real consequences".
The United Nations has more than 100,000 peacekeepers deployed in 16 missions around the world.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
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