Congo UN Sex Scandal Won't Go Away

I haven't revisited Nexis for a "UN AND congo AND sex AND abuse" search for a while, and was pleasantly surprised by the results: 93 hits in the last month, 14 in the last week. Better, but hardy great -- and the big MSM are still not touching this story.

A quick scan indicates that about two-thirds of the stories are true hits. Most deal with calls for Kofi Annan's resignation in one way or another, and mention the abuse of 150 Congolese young girls by UN Peacekeepers as a prominent criticism against his mismanagement of the UN. Also triggering stories were an Amnesty International report on rape as a weapon of war that mentioned the UN scandal briefly, and comments by a UN official in Helsinki regarding the ongoing investigation the UN is conducting. (Finland is a regular contributor of troops to UN peacekeeping efforts.)

There's no news on the UN site except this old release about its investigation. It will be interesting to see what the UN comes up with, and how the media report it.

Regrettably, in all the reading I've done on this subject, I've read nothing, nothing, about anyone doing anything to help the 150 young victims of UN-delivered abuse. Not a word about counseling, not a word about compensation. That should have been step one; the investigation step two.