Report: UN Suspected in Widespread Sexual Abuse of Children

Perhaps this newly released report will be enough to help persuade the UN to begin to police itself more thoroughly rather than point fingers at the US military's running of the Guantanamo terrorist detention camp.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed "deep concern" Tuesday after a leading children's charity said it uncovered evidence of widespread sexual abuse of children at the hands of U.N. peacekeepers and international aid workers.

The report by Save the Children UK, based on field research in southern Sudan, Ivory Coast and Haiti, describes a litany of sexual crimes against children as young as 6.

It said some children were denied food aid unless they granted sexual favors; others were forced to have sex or to take part in child pornography; many more were subjected to improper touching or kissing.

"The report shows sexual abuse has been widely underreported because children are afraid to come forward," Jasmine Whitbread, chief executive of Save the Children UK, told Associated Press Television News.

"A tiny proportion of peacekeepers and aid workers are abusing the children they were sent to protect. It ranges from sex for food to coerced sex. It's despicable."

At the U.N. headquarters, spokeswoman Michele Montas said Ban "is deeply concerned" by the report.

"We welcome this report. It's fair, and I think it's essentially accurate," Montas said.

I've always believed that the UN is a dismal failure at all things related to policing, but I've been more forgiving of them when it came to disaster relief and distributions. After the disastrous oil for food program and now this far reaching scandal of the most heinous sort, it is time for me to stop being so complimentary to that elite international body of yammering bozos.