Those who demand that the UN be given a leading role in Iraq (a group which includes John Kerry) would do well to study the sorry history of UN peacekeeper forces. Probably because of ill—discipline under the lax administrative norms of a multinational body where accountability is almost unheard of, UN troops have a sorry record of complicity in mass prostitution, sexual slavery, and child exploitation.

The latest vase to come to light is in Kosovo. Amnesty International, a generally left wing internationalist lot, has produced a report on sexual slavery in Kosovo, which damns the UN's complicity. The BBC reports that Amnesty

says that after 40,000 K—For troops and hundreds of Unmik personnel were sent to Kosovo in 1999, a "small—scale local market for prostitution was transformed into a large—scale industry based on trafficking run by organised criminal networks".

Those who want the UN to replace US as the responsible authority must really hate the women of Iraq. Although the United States has its occasional problem with poor discipline Among prison guards, the horrors visited upon local populations by UN troops ar far worse, and rarely result in any disciplinary actions or accountability.

Posted by Thomas  05 07 04