In documents, U.N. slow to act on abuse

France told late about reports of troops and kids in C. African Republic

Anders Kompass of the Geneva-based U.N. High Commission for Human Rights, shown here in 2006, was suspended for breaching protocol when he shared with French authorities the report on allegations of child sexual abuse by French soldiers in the Central African Republic.
Anders Kompass of the Geneva-based U.N. High Commission for Human Rights, shown here in 2006, was suspended for breaching protocol when he shared with French authorities the report on allegations of child sexual abuse by French soldiers in the Central African Republic.

UNITED NATIONS -- For months, the U.N.'s top human-rights officials knew about allegations of child sexual abuse by French soldiers in Central African Republic, collected by their own staff. But they didn't follow up because they assumed French authorities were handling it, statements marked "strictly confidential" show, even as France pressed the U.N. for more information about the case.

In a signed statement obtained by The Associated Press, the deputy high commissioner for human rights also says that her colleague who first informed French authorities last July did it because he didn't think the recently created U.N. peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic would act on the allegations.

A year after the U.N. first heard allegations from children as young as 9 that French soldiers had sexually abused them, sometimes in exchange for food, it seems that the only person who has been punished is the U.N. staff member who told French authorities.

The deputy high commissioner, Flavia Pansieri, says she was distracted from the case by other matters, including budget cuts, from last fall until early March, when her boss, the high commissioner, brought up the case.

"I regret to say that in the context of those very hectic days, I failed to follow up on the CAR situation," Pansieri says in the statement dated March 26. She adds that "both the HC and I knew that on CAR there was an ongoing process initiated by the French authorities to bring perpetrators to justice. I take full responsibility for not having given the matter the necessary attention."

The Paris prosecutor's office this month blamed the U.N. "hierarchy" for taking more than six months to supply answers to its questions. The office wanted to speak with a U.N. human-rights staff member who had interviewed some of the children, saying she was willing to talk.

The U.N. finally handed over written answers April 29, the Paris prosecutor's office said -- the same day the Guardian newspaper first made the French and U.N. inquiries public.

French soldiers had been tasked with protecting civilians in Central African Republic from violence between Christians and Muslims. Thousands of scared people had crammed into a camp for displaced people in the capital, Bangui. Residents have said soldiers offered cookies, other food or bottles of water in exchange for sodomy or oral sex.

It is still not clear where the accused soldiers are now. France has not announced any arrests.

When the allegations were first publicly reported, part of the anger was over the suspension of the Geneva-based U.N. human-rights staff member who first informed French authorities, Anders Kompass. The U.N. says he breached protocol in sharing the report without redacting the names in it. The U.N.'s Office of Internal Oversight Services is investigating. He could be fired.

A spokesman for the U.N. human-rights office, Andre-Michel Essoungou, said Monday the office would not comment on Pansieri's signed statement, noting the ongoing investigation of Kompass.

French troops arrived in Central African Republic in late 2013 and had a U.N. mandate to assist an African Union peacekeeping operation that was later taken over by a U.N. mission in September. France's defense ministry has said children told U.N. officials of sexual abuse by French soldiers between December 2013 and June 2014. France says it was informed of the allegations in July.

At that time, the abuse was thought to be still going on.

When the U.N. peacekeeping mission was created in April 2014, it included human-rights staff members with a mandate "to monitor, help investigate and report publicly" on abuses.

One of the human-rights staff members took allegations of sexual abuse from children in May and June. That person's superior, the mission's human-rights chief, reports to both the U.N. human-rights office in Geneva and the head of the peacekeeping mission.

In this case, the human-rights chief told the Bangui-based head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in July, "when French gendarmes arrived and asked to speak to U.N. investigators," the peacekeeping office said in a statement Tuesday.

That was about three months after the U.N. first heard the abuse allegations.

The French gendarmes were told to "clear the request through the standard human rights channels," the statement says. Several days later, the head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission decided the French should be told through the U.N. human-rights office in Geneva, because the French were not U.N. peacekeepers.

The head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission did not tell his bosses at U.N. headquarters.

The spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general said Tuesday that the ongoing investigation will examine how the entire U.N. system handled the allegations. "We want to learn from how this issue was handled," Stephane Dujarric said.

A Section on 05/27/2015

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