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UN staff accused of child abuse
03/01/2007 10:32 - (SA)
London - United Nations staff and peacekeepers in the south of Sudan have been accused of sexually abusing children as young as 12, reported the Daily Telegraph on Wednesday.
The abuse apparently started when the UN, which has about 10 000 personnel in the area, moved in two years ago to help reconstruction after a 23-year civil war, the paper said.
Initial claims of abuse emerged within months of the UN's arrival and an internal report was reportedly compiled on the issue in 2005.
The UN, whose new Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon started work on Tuesday, has refused to comment on the allegations, according to the Telegraph.
Footage of sex acts
The paper said it had gathered accounts from more than 20 victims detailing claims that UN workers had picked up children in vehicles owned by the organisation, and forced them to have sex.
But, the Telegraph said that hundreds of children may have been abused.
The Sudanese government, which is against any UN deployment in the stricken Darfur region of western Sudan, also had gathered evidence including footage of UN workers having sex with three young girls, said the paper.
'Lots of misunderstandings'
James Ellery, the British regional co-ordinator for the UN mission in Sudan, has refuted the claims, according to an interview last May cited by the Telegraph.
"None of these claims can be substantiated. This is the most-backward country in Africa and there are lots of misunderstandings as to the UN's role.
"More than 90% of people here are illiterate and rumours spread very quickly," he was quoted as saying.
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