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Joel Jeu 19 Déc 2019 - 9:04

http://nytimes.com/2019/12/18/world/americas/haiti-un-peacekeepers.html

U.N. Peacekeepers in Haiti Said to Have Fathered Hundreds of Children
Women and girls were left behind to face poverty, social stigma and single motherhood in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country.

A soldier of the United Nations peacekeeping mission formerly deployed in Haiti, known as Minustah, patrolling in Port-au-Prince in 2010.
A soldier of the United Nations peacekeeping mission formerly deployed in Haiti, known as Minustah, patrolling in Port-au-Prince in 2010.Credit...Damon Winter/The New York Times
Elian Peltier
By Elian Peltier
Published Dec. 18, 2019
Updated Dec. 19, 2019, 7:17 a.m. ET

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United Nations peacekeepers in Haiti fathered and left behind hundreds of children, researchers found in a newly released academic study, leaving mothers struggling with stigma, poverty and single parenthood after the men departed the country.

While the United Nations has acknowledged numerous instances of sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers in Haiti and elsewhere, the study on Haitian victims went further in documenting the scope of the problem in that country — the Western Hemisphere’s poorest — than had been previously known.

“Girls as young as 11 were sexually abused and impregnated” by peacekeepers, who were stationed in Haiti from 2004 to 2017, and some of the women were later “left in misery” to raise their children alone, according to the study by two academic researchers.

“They put a few coins in your hands to drop a baby in you,” one Haitian was quoted as saying by the researchers, whose work was published on Tuesday by The Conversation, an academic website supported by a consortium of universities.

The study, based on interviews with 2,500 Haitians who lived near peacekeeper bases in the summer of 2017, depicts a trail of abuse and exploitation left by some of the soldiers and civilians who served in the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti, known as Minustah, an acronym for its name in French.

The resulting children are known as “petits minustahs.”

Asked for comment, the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations said in a statement that it took the issues raised in the study seriously and that combating sexual exploitation and abuse committed by peacekeepers is a top priority of Secretary General António Guterres.

“We have unfortunately seen cases involving Minustah peacekeepers over the past years, although allegations have been generally declining since 2013,” the statement said.

The United Nations has previously acknowledged that more than 100 Sri Lankan peacekeepers deployed to Haiti exploited nine children in a sex ring from 2004 to 2007, and the men were sent home, but were not punished.

The new study, by Sabine Lee, a history professor at the University of Birmingham, and Susan Bartels, a clinician scientist at Queen’s University in Ontario, is the latest to document sexual misconduct by international peacekeeping forces, including those stationed in Mozambique, in Bosnia, in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in the Central African Republic.

Of the people interviewed by the authors, 265 told of children fathered by members of the peacekeeping force, who came from at least 13 countries but mostly Uruguay and Brazil, according to a chart in the study.

“That 10 percent of those interviewed mentioned such children highlights just how common such stories really are,” they wrote. They noted that over the years, news organizations had reported anecdotal cases in Haiti in which “minors were offered food and small amounts of cash to have sex with U.N. personnel.”

The authors did not estimate the exact numbers of impregnated women or children left behind. But legal experts and aid workers say the problem has been pervasive, and that the United Nations has failed to assist the women.

The Bureau des Avocats Internationaux, a group of Haitian lawyers based in Port-au-Prince, has filed paternity suits on behalf of 10 children said to have been fathered by peacekeepers. Sienna Merope-Synge, a staff attorney at a Boston-based partner organization, the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, said the groups had approached United Nations officials in 2016 about securing child support for the mothers but had received none.

“The U.N. must be much more proactive,” she said. “It shouldn’t be on a woman in rural Haiti to seek transnational action for a man in Uruguay.”

Others were far more critical of the United Nations, seeing the Haiti study as another instance of what they called the organization’s male-dominated ethos. Paula Donovan, a co-founder and co-director of AIDS-Free World, a group that has frequently castigated the United Nations over sexual abuse and gender issues, said the study had corroborated her views.

“This research confirms that standard U.N. practice is to exploit women — from those subsisting in tents to those presenting at conferences — and then squash them like bugs if they dare complain about sexual abuse and threaten the U.N. patriarchy’s 75-year-old culture of entitlement and impunity,” Ms. Donovan said in a statement.

While some mothers told the researchers of sexual violence by United Nations personnel, most of the stories recounted subtler forms of coercion, with peacekeepers trading small amounts of money or food for sex with women and girls who were often desperately poor. In other instances, women and their relatives described consensual relationships that ended when the peacekeepers left Haiti.

The authors said Haitians residing in communities around 10 United Nations bases had been asked “what it’s like to be a woman or a girl living in a community that hosts a peacekeeping mission.” The Haitians were not asked specifically about potential abuse or sexual relations with peacekeepers, according to the study, but participants raised the issue themselves.

“I started to talk to him, then he told me he loved me and I agreed to date him,” a woman was quoted as saying of her relationship several years earlier with a peacekeeper. “Three months later, I was pregnant, and in September he was sent to his country.” She added that she could not pay the fees to send her son to school.

The testimonies echoed a pattern seen in Liberia between 1990 and 1998, when thousands of children were reported to have been fathered by international peacekeepers.

In Haiti, the peacekeeping mission began as an attempt to bring stability after the 2004 rebellion that toppled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and the United Nations extended it after a catastrophic earthquake ravaged the country in 2010.

But the mission itself was devastating, according to human rights organizations and researchers. Peacekeepers have been accused of unintentionally killing dozens of civilians, and some introduced cholera to Haiti after the earthquake, starting an epidemic that killed more than 10,000 people and sickened more than 800,000. The United Nations has apologized for its role in the epidemic but has resisted legal efforts aimed at compensating cholera victims and their families.

The study’s authors recommended that the United Nations educate its personnel about the economic and social hardships of the mothers and children left behind. They also urged the world body to stop simply repatriating its people who are implicated in sexual exploitation or abuse, rather than turning them over to local authorities.

Joel Jeu 19 Déc 2019 - 9:11

Les Casques bleus des Nations Unies en Haïti auraient engendré des centaines d'enfants
Les femmes et les filles ont été laissées pour compte face à la pauvreté, à la stigmatisation sociale et à la maternité célibataire dans le pays le plus pauvre de l’hémisphère occidental.

Un soldat de la mission de maintien de la paix des Nations Unies anciennement déployé en Haïti, connu sous le nom de Minustah, patrouillant à Port-au-Prince en 2010.
Un soldat de la mission de maintien de la paix des Nations Unies anciennement déployé en Haïti, connu sous le nom de Minustah, patrouille à Port-au-Prince en 2010.Crédit ... Damon Winter / The New York Times
Elian Peltier
Par Elian Peltier
Publié le 18 décembre 2019
Mis à jour le 19 décembre 2019 à 7 h 17 HE

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Les soldats de la paix des Nations Unies en Haïti ont engendré et laissé des centaines d'enfants, ont découvert des chercheurs dans une étude universitaire récemment publiée, laissant les mères aux prises avec la stigmatisation, la pauvreté et la monoparentalité après le départ des hommes du pays.

Alors que l’ONU a reconnu de nombreux cas d’exploitation et d’abus sexuels commis par des soldats de la paix en Haïti et ailleurs, l’étude sur les victimes haïtiennes est allée plus loin dans la documentation de l’ampleur du problème dans ce pays - le plus pauvre de l’hémisphère occidental - par rapport à ce qui était connu auparavant.

«Des filles aussi jeunes que 11 ans ont été agressées sexuellement et imprégnées» par des soldats de la paix, qui ont été postés en Haïti de 2004 à 2017, et certaines des femmes ont ensuite été «laissées dans la misère» pour élever leurs enfants seules, selon l'étude de deux universitaires des chercheurs.

«Ils ont mis quelques pièces entre vos mains pour laisser tomber un bébé en vous», a déclaré un Haïtien cité par les chercheurs, dont les travaux ont été publiés mardi par The Conversation, un site Web universitaire soutenu par un consortium d'universités.

L'étude, basée sur des entretiens avec 2500 haïtiens qui vivaient près des bases de maintien de la paix à l'été 2017, dépeint une piste d'abus et d'exploitation laissée par certains des soldats et des civils qui ont servi dans la mission de maintien de la paix des Nations Unies en Haïti, connue sous le nom de Minustah, un acronyme pour son nom en français.

Les enfants qui en résultent sont connus sous le nom de «petits minustahs».

Interrogé, le Département des opérations de maintien de la paix des Nations Unies a déclaré dans un communiqué qu'il prenait les questions soulevées dans l'étude au sérieux et que la lutte contre l'exploitation et les abus sexuels commis par les soldats de la paix était une priorité absolue du Secrétaire général António Guterres.

"Nous avons malheureusement vu des cas impliquant des soldats de la paix de la Minustah au cours des dernières années, bien que les allégations aient généralement décliné depuis 2013", indique le communiqué.

Les Nations Unies ont précédemment reconnu que plus de 100 casques bleus sri-lankais déployés en Haïti ont exploité neuf enfants dans un cercle sexuel de 2004 à 2007, et les hommes ont été renvoyés chez eux, mais n'ont pas été punis.

La nouvelle étude, par Sabine Lee, professeur d'histoire à l'Université de Birmingham, et Susan Bartels, clinicienne scientifique à l'Université Queen's en Ontario, est la dernière à documenter l'inconduite sexuelle des forces internationales de maintien de la paix, y compris celles stationnées au Mozambique, en Bosnie. , en République démocratique du Congo et en République centrafricaine.

Parmi les personnes interrogées par les auteurs, 265 ont parlé d'enfants engendrés par des membres des forces de maintien de la paix, venus d'au moins 13 pays, mais principalement de l'Uruguay et du Brésil, selon un graphique de l'étude.

«Le fait que 10% des personnes interrogées ont mentionné de tels enfants souligne à quel point ces histoires sont vraiment courantes», ont-ils écrit. Ils ont noté qu’au fil des ans, les organes de presse avaient rapporté des cas anecdotiques

2 BAGAY MINISTA kite Timoun san PAPA ak GOUVENMAN VOLO

2 BAGAY MINISTA kite Timoun san PAPA ak GOUVENMAN VOLO

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