Mahiga: No complaints of sex crimes by Tanzanian peacekeepers

The government has denied knowledge of any allegations of sexual exploitation or sexual abuse by Tanzanian soldiers serving in peacekeeping missions in foreign countries after a new United Nations report linked them to the sex crime accusations.

 

According to the UN report, there were 99 new allegations of sexual exploitation or abuse by UN staff members last year. Most of the allegations involved peacekeepers from the Democratic Republic of Congo serving in Central African Republic (CAR). There were also allegations against peacekeeping troops from several European countries, and Canada.

 

From Africa, the allegations were aimed at soldiers and policemen from Burundi, Ghana, Senegal, Madagascar, Rwanda, Congo Republic, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Niger, Togo, South Africa, Morocco, Benin, Nigeria and Gabon – apart from Tanzania.

 

However, according to foreign affairs minister Augustine Mahiga, Tanzania has not received any official complaints on the alleged involvement of its soldiers in such acts.

 

“Our military officers are disciplined ... there are no complaints.

 

 Actually, we are now working on a new UN request to send troops to South Sudan,” said Ambassador Mahiga, while acknowledging that sexual crime allegations have in recent years been on the rise in many of the countries where UN peacekeeping missions work, such as the CAR.

 

The minister explained that about 1,000 members of the Tanzania People’s Defence Forces (TPDF), including soldiers and field engineers, are currently serving in a UN peacekeeping operation in Darfur, South Sudan, while 300 TPDF military police officers are on similar duty in Lebanon.

 

He said Tanzania also has soldiers in a UN special force brigade in the DRC made up of troops from South Africa and Malawi as well.

The United States is pressing the UN Security Council for the first time to confront the escalating problem of sexual abuse and exploitation by UN peacekeepers, which has undermined the organization’s credibility.

 

The majority of those allegations - 69 in all - involved personnel in 10 peacekeeping missions, the report said. The military and police personnel accused of sexual crimes while serving for the United Nations involved some 21 countries, most of them African.

 

The report endorsed by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon did not identify the nationalities of the 30 staff members accused of sexual abuse or exploitation who were not working for peacekeeping missions.

The report came in response to a new UN ‘name and shame’ policy for peacekeepers implemented after a series of allegations of rape and sexual abuse by international troops in Central African Republic.

 

In addition to CAR, the allegations involved peacekeeping missions in places like Haiti, Mali, DRC and Ivory Coast. The report included recommendations for member states to make it easier to identify suspected perpetrators and prosecute them.

 

It called on the UN General Assembly and troop contributing countries to allow prosecutions inside the countries where the alleged crimes took place and the creation of a DNA registry of all peacekeepers.

 

One of the problems, human rights groups say, is that it is currently up to UN troop-contributing countries to prosecute their soldiers accused of abuse. When such prosecutions happen, the groups say, they often take place quietly and it is difficult to follow up on the results and punishments, if any.

 

In December an independent review panel accused the United Nations and its agencies of grossly mishandling numerous allegations of child sexual abuse by foreign troops in CAR in 2013 and 2014.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN