FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 12, 2016
Contact: Bob Weiner 301-283-0821, cell 202-306-1200 weinerpublic@comcast.net
(Washington, D.C.) — Robert Weiner, a former spokesman for the White House and the House Government Operations Committee, and Sydney Hemmendinger, a human rights policy analyst for Robert Weiner Associates and Solutions for Change, have written an article in The Memphis Commercial Appeal calling for the end of hundreds of African rapes perpetuated by UN peacekeepers, including child victims.
In the article, titled “The UN’s Shame”, Weiner and Hemmendinger assert that “The rapes have been occurring for at least eight years. The UN Office of Internal Oversight Services received 480 reports of sexual abuse by UN African peacekeepers between 2008 and 2013, one-third against minors, with 80 new cases in 2014, 99 in 2015, and Voice of America reporting on that they are ‘on the rise’ this year. Despite the reality of these atrocities, there has been no effective UN training or oversight, and no cutoff of funds to the abusing authorities.” In fact, most recently, ten murders by the peacekeepers of women victims have been reported.
Weiner and Hemmendinger cite former investigator in the Office of Internal Oversight Services at the UN, Peter Gallo, who told House Foreign Affairs Committee on April 13, “The UN did nothing, but staff kept returning, day after day, to record how more and more children were being raped.”
They go on to explain that “In response the UN threatened to remove him from his position and put him under disciplinary investigation. Following his exoneration, Kompass told the Guardian that “it is still a mystery why most of the UN leadership decided to do this to me when they knew very well how badly the UN was handling these types of cases and they knew there was a big gap in terms of under reporting.”
Weiner and Hemmendinger say, “In March, the UN Security Council passed a resolution proposing that future investigations into sexual assault be completed within six months of the accusation, that DNA sample collection must occur where the assault was committed, and that the entire unit be sent home if a member is found guilty. However, Egypt, Russia, and Senegal all complained. The Egyptian foreign minister tweeted, ‘What is sad is for a Security Council Permanent Rep to impose resolution on security council for publicity & personal ambition.’ The culture of invisibility, hiding the truth, and inaction persists.”
They then introduce a possible solution: “A bipartisan coalition of Senators, led by Robert Corker (R-Tenn) and Ben Cardin (D-MD), have passed legislation in the Senate, in the State Department Authorization, to mandate training and oversight, and impose a 15% reduction of aid to the UN and international organizations that fail to protect individuals from sexual abuse. However, no State Department Authorization has passed both Houses and become law since 2002. Corker told Newsweek in April that ‘If I knew right now that a U.N. peacekeeping mission was going into North Chattanooga [in Tennessee] today, which is where my wife is, I would be on the first plane out of here to protect her from the U.N. peacekeepers.’ The unanimously-passed Senate bill is now awaiting House approval. However, according to govtrack.us, the bill stands a 38% chance of being enacted.”
They conclude by saying, “The US contributes a quarter of the UN’s annual $8 billion peacekeeping budget. UN peacekeepers are supposed to be people that those in poor, conflict-ridden regions can look to for safety, not rapes and murders.”
Source: Robert Weiner Associates and Solutions for Change