UN officials knew of sex abuse for months

For months, the UN's top human rights officials knew about allegations of child sexual abuse by French soldiers in Central African Republic, but they didn't follow up because they assumed French authorities were handling it, statements marked "strictly confidential" show.

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

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

Deputy High Commissioner Flavia Pansieri said she was distracted from the case by other issues, 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 said in the statement dated on March 26.

She said, and her boss knew, French authorities had initiated a process to bring the perpetrators to justice, but took "full responsibility for not having given the matter the necessary attention".

However, the Paris prosecutor's office this month blamed the UN "hierarchy" for taking more than six months to supply answers to its questions. The office wanted to speak with a UN human rights staffer who had interviewed some of the children, but said she was willing to talk.

(China Daily 05/27/2015 page12)