This item was a small piece in my local news, so I did a search and found it on the net here:
< http://24hour.startribune.com/24hour/world/story/272723p-2496644c.html
U.N. secretary-general orders investigation into sex abuse allegations
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS (February 27, 6:31 p.m. CST) - The U.N. secretary-general on Wednesday ordered an urgent investigation into allegations that U.N. staff sexually abused children in refugee camps in West Africa.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was shocked by reports of possible extensive exploitation of young people already battered by years of war.
"The secretary-general reiterates the policy of zero tolerance for any such acts perpetrated by any one employed by or affiliated with the United Nations," said U.N. associate spokeswoman Marie Okabe. "He intends to act forcefully should any of these allegations be confirmed and undertakes to do so in a transparent and expeditious manner."
Annan ordered the investigation a day after the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and a major children's charity reported allegations of extensive sexual exploitation of refugee children in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone by local employees of more than 40 private aid organizations and U.N. agencies, including UNHCR.
During a 40-day mission late last year to examine sexual violence and the exploitation of refugee children in West Africa, a team from UNHCR and Save the Children UK heard allegations that local men employed by the international organizations traded humanitarian aid and services for sex with girls under 18.
West African officials, meanwhile, said the allegations were disgusting but not surprising.
Liberia's deputy health minister, Arthur Saye, said he was disheartened to learn the country's relief workers were among those implicated in the investigation.
"I did not know that the people we thought were helping the needy were the ones endangering their future," he said.
In neighboring Sierra Leone, Information Minister Cecil Blake said it was a "shocking revelation" and promised anyone found guilty of sexually exploiting refugees would "face the full force of the law."
While the victims were overwhelmingly girls, some boys also suffered alleged sexual abuse by the actions of women, said Paul Nolan, child protection manager for Save The Children.
Though the team was not in a position to verify the allegations, it said the problem appeared especially pronounced in refugee camps in Liberia and Guinea.
Liberia was devastated by a 1989-96 civil war. Sierra Leone's decade-long conflict was officially declared over last month. Guinea for years was spared the violence that convulsed its two neighbors, whose citizens it welcomed by the hundreds of thousands. But two years ago, fighting broke out along Guinea's borders with Liberia and Sierra Leone.
"Here in this camp, it happens plenty, plenty times," said a Sierra Leonean mother of seven at a camp in the Liberian capital, Monrovia. "They take advantage of our condition." She asked not to be named for fear of retribution.
Two U.N. investigators from the Office of Internal Oversight, a pediatric expert on child abuse, and staff from UNHCR's inspector general's office have been in the region for the last two weeks looking into the allegations. "We expect the results from that in early March," Okabe said.
The UNHCR and Save The Children decided to release the findings before the report was complete "because of the apparent scope of the problem, and because of the need for an immediate and coordinated approach to implement measures by a wide range of agencies and organizations," Ron Redmond, UNHCR spokesman, said in a telephone interview from Geneva.
UNHCR has drawn up plans to increase security and the international presence in refugee camps, including deployment of more female staff, and to establish a communications channel so refugees can raise complaints with senior UNHCR officials, he said.
The refugee agency is also reviewing the design of camps to ensure security and privacy, especially for women and children, for example in using latrines, he said.
Carol Bellamy, executive director of the U.N. Children's Fund, said the agency was "particularly outraged that some humanitarian workers have betrayed the trust of the children they are charged to assist and protect."
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Now here is the caption I yearn to WITNESS one day:
"United Nations orders investigation into alleged sex abuse in the Watchtower Bible Tract Society, which governs the entire "religion" known as JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES", even though we, the United Nations allowed this organization to "charter up" with us."
Or something of this nature.
Ted:
The United Nations shall know...
If man was supposedly created in gods image, then.....holy krap...we're all doomed.-sKallyWagger