U.N. Peacekeepers Accused of Sexually Assaulting Haitian Teen
By ANSEL HERZ, MATTHEW MOSK and RYM MOMTAZ
September 2, 2011

Haitians in this remote seaside town are demanding an investigation into allegations that United Nations peacekeeping troops pinned down an 18-year-old Haitian man and subjected him to a humiliating sexual assault.

The alleged assault occurred in July, but graphic cell phone video surfaced in recent days, showing what appears to be the four UN troops in camouflage and some wearing the trademark sky blue berets attacking the man. As the video began circulating through the coastal village, it sparked a growing sense of outrage there and prompted the victim's mother and father to seek criminal charges against the United Nations peacekeeping officers, who are from Uruguay. Both parents submitted written depositions on Wednesday in Port Salut's courthouse.

A medical certificate filed with the court in Haiti and obtained by ABC News, alleges the victim was beaten and had sustained injuries consistent with having been sexually assaulted.

VIDEO: U.N. Peacekeepers Accused of Sex Assault on Teen

Word of the alleged attack quickly made its way up the chain of command at the United Nations, both in Haiti and in New York, where officials are now vowing to see the incident investigated and the alleged perpetrators brought to justice. Michel Bonnardeaux, a spokesperson for peacekeeping operations based in New York, told ABC News that officials in his office first became aware of the allegations Saturday. They sent a diplomatic note to the Uruguayan mission requesting the country deploy a national investigative officer to Haiti immediately.

"The defense minister of Uruguay has expressed deep concern and said they will take all the necessary action," Bonnardeaux said. "We see this as a breakdown of the command and control structure. If the allegations are proved, the assailants must be brought to justice."

Messages left Friday with the Uruguayan mission in New York were not returned.


Bonnardeaux said the troops involved in the incident have been confined to their barracks.

Under an agreement between Haiti and the U.N., peacekeeping troops are only subject to discipline and legal action from their country of origin. Uruguay has deployed 1,100 troops to the quake-battered island nation. Bonnardeaux said the primary purpose for the U.N. troops being in Haiti is to insure the protection of Haitian civilians.

But that is not what appears to be happening on the one-minute video, which pans out from a sideways close-up of the alleged victim's strained face to reveal his body being held down on a mattress by the uniformed men. The alleged assailants can be heard laughing as a shirtless soldier kneels behind the Haitian victim and appears to be assaulting him. The video ends as a soldier grabs the bedraggled young man's arm and seems to try pulling him onto his feet.

Interviewed by a reporter at the courthouse, the young man said he was snatched from behind as he walked by the U.N. base. He alleged he was beaten and sexually molested. "They're bad people -- vagabonds," he said. The young man's mother, a street merchant, held up a pair of black pants to show they were torn. She said it was not until the video surfaced that she discovered what had happened.

"He had stayed in his bed during about two weeks but he never told me what was wrong with him," she said. "We're humiliated ... After I saw the video, I couldn't stop crying."

Uruguayan Navy Lieutenant Nicolas Casariego confirmed to ABC News that the video is real. He spoke through the barbed-wire fence that surrounds the base where the alleged incident took place.

Casariego, the base commander, called the apparent abuse in the video "a game" and said it wasn't sexual in nature. "It's a young guy who is normally around here, like these people," he said, pointing to a Haitian family sitting outside their home twenty yards away. He said the soldiers engaged in "some kind of bullying, but nothing more."

The alleged assault is just the latest in a series of incidents that have frayed relations between Haitians and the 12,000 foreign troops who have been stationed in Haiti under the U.N. banner now for several years. Anti-U.N. riots shut down major cities and thoroughfares after an outbreak of cholera last October. Rumors circulated that a U.N. base had introduced the disease to Haiti. Scientific studies by the Centers for Disease Control and others have since confirmed the source of the outbreak was a Nepalese peacekeeping base in central Haiti.

Sinal Bertrand, a Haitian parliamentary deputy from the Port Salut area, said he began talks with U.N. officials last week about other allegations against the soldiers by residents of Port Salut, ranging from sexually exploiting young women to environmentally polluting the area.


Andre Jean, a local mechanic, summed up those tensions, saying he does not believe the peacekeepers make him any more secure.

"They aren't useful to us at all," he said. "They just go back and forth to the beach, nothing more here in Port Salut. They just check out the young girls. If something happens to you and you go to them to ask for help, they tell you, go to the police."

Bertrand said he is calling on the U.N. to ensure that the alleged assailants in this latest case are punished.

"If they don't collaborate with the justice system, I'll denounce them," he said. "I'm expecting [the U.N.] to respond, until there's justice."

Next
http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=14437122&sid=3029941

[YOUTUBE]mAVdxsz-8YM[/YOUTUBE]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAVdxsz-8YM&feature=player_embedded

SUCKS

further most that is Unacceptable :

Sad. Cannot believe this happens, but it is supposedly a prank video that is shown above.

ruguay's president has apologized for the "outrage" carried out by peacekeepers accused of sexually assaulting a young Haitian man and vowed the "maximum penalty" for anyone found guilty.

The soldiers, who were based in southern Haiti, stand accused of attacking an 18-year-old man in the small coastal town of Port-Salut. Video footage of the alleged attack on a Uruguayan base has been circulated on the Internet.

"I come at this terrible time to offer you and the dear and heroic people of Haiti my apologies for the outrage that some soldiers of my country committed," Uruguay's President Jose Mujica said in a letter released late Tuesday.

"I share your sadness, which I feel as my own," he said, adding that authorities would investigate the matter and apply the "maximum penalty" to those responsible.

Uruguay's defense minister had earlier admitted that the incident had caused "a lot of damage" to the armed forces, which provide around 2,400 peacekeepers worldwide, mostly in Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The five peacekeepers accused of sexual assault are to be sent home this week, Defense Minister Eleuterio Fernandez Huidobro said.

The Uruguayan government has opened a case in the matter, as peacekeepers must be tried in their home country for any crimes allegedly committed during their deployments abroad.

Montevideo has also sacked a navy commander with the UN mission in Haiti over the incident.

Haitian President Michel Martelly has condemned the alleged attack and demanded a detailed report on the exact circumstances of the incident, according to his office.

Martelly has also requested a meeting between Haitian officials and UN mission staff so that "measures can immediately be taken to ensure that such acts do not reoccur," his office said in a statement.

On Monday, hundreds of people demonstrated in Port-Salut to demand justice for the alleged victim, while some Haitians have asked for the UN mission -- in the country since 2004 -- to be shut down.

The UN mission -- formed to help maintain peace after chaos erupted at the end of Jean-Bertrand Aristide's presidency -- has also come under fire after a cholera outbreak that could have been transmitted by Nepalese peacekeepers.


http://ca.news.yahoo.com/uruguay-apologizes-over-alleged-haiti-sex-assault-131356473.html

After the whole Nepalese-Cholera issue, the UN seriously need to get their act together because I'm pretty sure that Haitians view them as enemies and not allies. smh. One more problem...

I agree, but if the Haitians start seriously working to get their act together, they would not need the UN in their territory as allies or enemies. While the present state of affairs continue, UN would be there, if they like it or no.

Anyone who thinks the UN are good guys is stupid. They are EVIL personified and they will carry out their foul acts to the end (same with WHO). They almost certainly introduced the cholera; a vile cruel disease. This poor young man will never recover and they UN devils to rot in hell. Wake up to whatis going on and the rape of YOUR country.YOUR resourses would make you all millionaire like in Kuwait. And the Haitians. Do not let this go on.

WAKE UP. DO NOT BE VICTIMS.

For better or worse, no one appreciates foreign military invaders in their respective countries no matter how innocuous their presence may be. Then again what would happen if UN forces were not in Haiti?

Two Pakistani UN soldiers jailed for raping Haitian boy


UN soldiers patrol in Port-au-Prince August 11, 2011. UN peacekeepers in Haiti have faced growing criticism


Two United Nations peacekeepers from Pakistan have been sentenced to a year in prison and sacked from the army for raping a 14-year-old boy in Haiti.

The soldiers were found guilty by a Pakistani military tribunal in Haiti and will serve their terms back home.

The attack in Gonaives in January was not the first time UN peacekeepers have been accused of assault.

Last year, five Uruguayan soldiers were accused of sexually assaulting a teenage boy at a UN base.

In that case a video which purported to show the attack was posted on the internet, leading to protests in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, and calls for the UN to leave the country.

There have also been demands that UN soldiers should be stripped of their immunity and be tried by Haitian courts.

Monday's ruling was the first time that UN personnel have been tried and sentenced while still in the country.

Haitian Justice Minister Michel Brunache said the verdict was a small step in the right direction but that "we expected more from the UN and the Pakistani government".

The UN peacekeeping mission has been deployed in Haiti since 2004.

Its reputation was particularly damaged by a cholera epidemic in 2010, which is thought to have been caused by sewage from a camp housing peacekeepers from Nepal.