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U.N. Vows Strong Action on Staff
Abuse
May 9, 2006 - (AP) The United Nations
will take action against any employees who sexually abuse girls
in Liberia, an official said Tuesday in response accusations that
aid workers and peacekeepers were trading food for sex with girls
left homeless by war.
The aid group Save the Children,
which surveyed nearly 160 children and about 170 adults who were
either living in camps or had recently returned home, said Monday
they were repeatedly told of girls having sex with older men in
exchange for money, food and other goods.
The accused included peacekeeping
troops, aid workers and other powerful men in the community. The
group's report did not give the nationality of the aid workers or
peacekeepers involved. About 17,000 U.N. peacekeepers are based
in Liberia.
Christiane Berthiaume, spokeswoman
for the World Food Program, told reporters she had great respect
for two Liberian women who made allegations against WFP employees
in interviews with the British Broadcasting Corporation, but she
said it was unclear whether the alleged abusers worked directly
for the U.N. agency or for a local charity distributing WFP food.
''If the accusations are true, we
will take the most severe measures and ask, of course, for the arrest
of the guilty,'' Berthiaume said.
She said the agency spends a lot
of time training the people it works with -- many of them hired
locally -- telling them, ''We won't tolerate any abuses.''
Damien Personnaz, a spokesman for
the U.N. Children's Fund, said UNICEF is investigating the allegations
because it is the lead U.N. agency in Liberia, but has no reason
to doubt Save the Children's report.
If the allegations prove true, ''other
measures will be taken,'' he said.
Marie Heuze, chief spokeswoman in
Geneva for the United Nations, said U.N. investigators so far reported
eight cases of sexual exploitation since the beginning of the year.
U.N. agencies are helping hundreds
of thousands of Liberians recover from years of civil war.
From: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-UN-Liberia.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
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