The boy, known as Victim No. Over the course of three years, he said he had sex with more than Sri Lankan peacekeepers, averaging about four a day. From to , nine Haitian children were exploited by a child sex ring involving at least Sri Lankan peacekeepers, according to a U.
Often the children were given cookies or a few dollars in exchange for sex. Although of the peacekeepers were sent home, none was ever jailed for the abuse. Justice for victims is rare. An Associated Press investigation of U. More than of the allegations involved children, the AP found, but only a fraction of the alleged perpetrators were jailed. In March, U. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced new measures to tackle peacekeeper misconduct.
But the proclamation had a depressingly familiar ring: More than a decade ago, the United Nations commissioned a report that promised to do much the same thing, yet most of the reforms never materialized. For a full two years after those promises were made, the children in Haiti were passed around from soldier to soldier.
And in the years since, peacekeepers have been accused of sexual abuse the world over. Bob Corker, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has been calling for reforms in the United Nations for more than a year. He may well get them under President Donald Trump, whose administration has proposed a 31 percent reduction to the U. By , the resort was a decrepit clutch of buildings and several children, either orphaned or abandoned by their parents, were living in its ruins.
It was there that the girl identified as Victim No. Some of the peacekeepers in the Sri Lankan contingent were based nearby. In August , the U. V02, who was 16 when the U. She said he often showed her a picture of his wife. V04, who was 14, said she had sex with the soldiers every day in exchange for money, cookies or juice.
