Nearly 100 allegations of sexual exploitation across 69 countries were received by the UN against its peacekeepers last year with no Indian personnel involved in any wrongdoing, according to the world body’s new report.
Most number of peacekeepers accused of sexual abuse in 2015 were from Congo, Morocco, South Africa, Cameroon, Rwanda and Tanzania, the UN said in its latest report on special measures to protect people from crimes of sexual abuse and exploitation.
There were 99 allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse uncovered by the United Nations in 2015, the report said. No Indians were among the peacekeepers accused of sexual abuse.
“I’m ashamed to call myself a peacekeeper on some of these days when I see cases like this,” UN Under Secretary- General for Field Support
Atul Khare told reporters here referring to the pregnancy of a 13-year old girl as he presented the findings of the report.
“What we need to do is not detract from the good work which is done by hundreds of thousands of peacekeepers. We need to find these culprits who bring a bad name to peacekeeping, who actually create problems within the country in which they find themselves, and most importantly who destroy young innocent lives. And we need to punish them in a certain manner that nobody else in the future will ever think of doing that,” he said.
India has strongly condemned the cases of sexual exploitation carried out by peacekeepers and stressed that it has a zero tolerance policy towards such conduct.
India has 7,798 peacekeepers in 10 UN missions across the world.