Ban-ki Moon Starts By Ignoring Child Rape And Corruption

Ban-ki Moon met the press today, his first as Sec Gen of the UN. Here's what he talked about: Dafur, the Middle East, Lebanon (Isn't that in the Middle East?), Iran, Iraq, North Korea, and Saddam Hussein's execution.

Those matters, quite frankly, should be the least of his concerns.

As Claudia Rosette so aptly put it, his actual job is to be the chief administrative officer of the UN, not the job Annan created: chief diplomat to the world. And, as chief administrative officer, his biggest -- really his only -- concern should be straightening out the corruption that seeps from nearly every pore of the organization.

It's never been more important, as child rape by peacekeepers has emerged again, and been covered up by the UN. Rosette, again:

Sending UN peacekeepers two years ago to “rebuild” southern Sudan hasn’t brought peace, but according to the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph, it has allegedly brought what is becoming one of the signature activities of UN forces in Africa: peacekeeper rape… of children. According to the Telegraph, UNICEF has been sitting on an internal report of such abuses, and the Telegraph itself has gathered accounts of more than 20 alleged victims, and suggests there may have been hundreds of such cases. Here’s the story, headlined: “UN Staff Accused of Raping Children in Sudan.”

An earlier C-SM post on Peacekeeper child rape can be found here. Annan pledged to put an end to porno Peacekeepers and to aggressively prosecute all involved -- and apparently it was yet another empty Annan promise.

As another Peacekeeper scandal looms, Ban starts his tenure without a word about corruption -- and worse, he's appointing Old School UN-ers to key posts, so it looks like it will be more of the same at the UN.

Related Tags: U.N., Ban-ki Moon, Annan, Dafur