Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the Inner City to Wall Street to the United Nations

In Haiti, 1 Year in Jail for UN Rapists of 14-Year Old, Ban Has Nothing to Say

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 13 -- When at least two UN peacekeepers were found guilty by their own country of raping a 14 year old Haitian boy but were sentenced to only one year in jail, what did the UN say?

  Nothing.

Inner City Press asked, at the UN's March 13 noon briefing:

Inner City Press: One follow-up on Haiti? It’s been reported by at least two global media organizations that the penalty was one year in prison, and that the crime, the alleged crime that they were found guilty of was the rape of a 14-year-old boy, and I just wonder, given the importance that the UN puts on child protection etcetera, is a one-year prison sentence an appropriate sentence for the rape of a 14-year-old of any gender?

Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: The United Nations will not comment on the terms of punishment under a Member State’s judicial procedure

This response is unsatisfactory, given that Ban Ki-moon and the UN in other cases call for accountability. Not in the cases of their own peacekeepers? Or simply not for Haitians?

Now even UN envoy to Haiti Bill Clinton has admitted that the UN brought cholera into Haiti. But the UN insists that it is "still studying" the claims for compensation. How can the UN then preach accountability anywhere else? Watch this site.