U.N. confronts another sex scandal

As with most nations contributing troops to U.N. peacekeeping missions, the Sri Lankan government retains responsibility for disciplinary action against its soldiers here. Authorities in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, in consultation with the commander of the 950-member Sri Lankan contingent, ordered the repatriations and deployed a high-level investigative team, including a female officer, to determine the extent of the abuses. That inquiry has yet to be completed, said Wimhurst, the MINUSTAH spokesman.

A spokeswoman for the Sri Lankan mission at the United Nations in New York, Mahishini Colonne, said she didn't know when her government's investigation would wrap up or who, other than officials in Colombo, would receive the report. She said reparations to Haitian victims was probably "one aspect being considered."

But a senior diplomat at the Sri Lankan Embassy in Washington disputed that any compensation was due alleged victims and said the Haitian government was "also to be blamed."

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the diplomat said poverty and the Haitian government's inability to create opportunities for its citizens led young girls to sell themselves to lonely and homesick soldiers. He also said that the scope of the misconduct had been exaggerated and that some troops who never left their bases were among those identified from photographs by Haitian women.

Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue, the Haitian minister of women's affairs, said she believed the abuses might be more widespread than reported, not less.

The U.N. has not shared its findings with the Haitian government. Lassegue said such a move was a necessary first step for Haitians to gather evidence to pursue reparations and dissuade further misconduct.

She has appealed to Haitian girls and women who have been involved in prohibited relationships with U.N. soldiers to come forward to provide testimony in a legal case to be brought before Sri Lanka and any other offending nations.

"The ones we know about have been traumatized and will need time to heal before they can take part in any campaign to alert others to the dangers," she said. "We don't yet have any perspective on the size of the problem, and my worst fear is that there are many others out there we don't even know about."

--

carol.williams@latimes.com