How Low Can the UN Go?

The UN has been aware since last spring that UN peacekeepers have been engaging in sexually exploitative acts with the locals in Congo. The UN, acting in their usual slow unresponsive ways, failed to take immediate action to crack down on this horrific behavior. Then ABC ran a damning piece about a month ago on how UN peacekeepers are soliciting prostitutes and raping young children in Congo. With the UN having long been aware of the problems in Congo and being embarrassed on national American television, has the UN finally cleaned up its act? In short, no. Despite pledges from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to get tough with the sex abuses in Congo, the sex abuses by UN peacekeepers continues.

So is anyone going to be held accountable for yet another scandal at the UN? Don't bet on it. The UN Envoy to Congo, William Lacy Swing, was reportedly going to be forced out, and "send a signal that senior U.N. officials will be held accountable for not cracking down on misconduct by U.N. personnel under their watch," according to UN officials. So when is Swing going to step down? Not any time soon. Swing is set to stay on as the UN Envoy to Congo. According to Annan, now "was not the moment for a sudden change of SRSG [Special Representative] with the disruption that it would cause." Why again is the U.S. giving any money to support this joke of an organization. Annan should have stepped down months ago. This scandal makes the Abu Ghraib prison scandal look like harmless frat boy antics, and the refusal by the UN to get tough in dealing with these sexual predators just disgusts me.