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05/25/2004: "Please let the UN run Iraq! (Part 4)"
More evidence that the UN should not be given a free hand in Iraq comes from the Congo via the left-wing British newspaper The Independent:
Teenage rape victims fleeing war in the Democratic Republic of Congo are being sexually exploited by the United Nations peace-keeping troops sent to the stop their suffering.
The Independent has found that mothers as young as 13–the victims of multiple rape by militiamen–can only secure enough food to survive in the sprawling refugee camp by routinely sleeping with UN peace-keepers.
Testimony from girls and aid workers in the Internally Displaced People (IDP) camp in Bunia, in the north-east corner of Congo, claims that every night teenage girls crawl through a wire fence to an adjoining UN compound to sell their bodies to Moroccan and Uruguayan soldiers.
The trade, which according to one victim results in a banana or a cake to feed to her infant son, is taking place despite a pledge by the UN to adopt a "zero tolerance" attitude to cases of sexual misconduct by those representing the organisation.
Bosnia, Eritrea, Congo–anyone see a pattern developing?
UPDATE: Predictably enough, these guys don't:
Church leaders who met with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan Monday said they are convinced that international involvement is Iraq’s only chance for lasting peace and security and that the United Nations is the organization rightfully to take that role.
"We hope that President Bush will not just repackage the occupation, but that he will welcome significant involvement by the United Nations, giving the U.N. an independent role and not impeding its ability to function," said the Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, General Secretary of the New York-based National Council of Churches USA, who led the 11-member international delegation.
Said the Rev. Dr. Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA), Louisville, Ky., "Clearly the United Nations is ready and able to provide leadership in Iraq. This will be good for the United States, Iraq and the world. The churches we represent would greatly welcome the U.N.'s leadership role."
What Kirkpatrick actually means, of course, is that he and his buddies in the mainline bureaucracies welcome it. He's made no attempt to discern the mind of laypeople in the mainline churches (who may or may not support his position). The way he speaks of "the churches we represent" when imputing his political opinions to them says volumes about the denominational official's attitude toward the "pray-and-pay" people in the pews.
