Rampant U.N. sexploitation

Attention all you who continue to insist that the United Nations represents the pinnacle of humanity's moral achievement. Do not pay attention to this story in the LA Times (free registration required):

UNITED NATIONS — A scandal about the sexual abuse of Congolese women and children by U.N. officials and peacekeepers intensified Friday with the broadcast of explicit pictures of a French U.N. worker and Congolese girls and his claim that there was a network of pedophiles at the U.N. mission in Congo.

ABC News' "20/20" program showed pictures taken from the computer of a French U.N. transport worker. The hard drive reportedly contained thousands of photos of him with hundreds of girls. In one frame, a tear can be seen rolling down the cheek of a victim.
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The staffer, Didier Bourguet, 41, is facing charges of sexual abuse and rape in France. His lawyer, Claude de Boosere- Lepidi, said in court last week that there was a network of U.N. personnel who had sex with underage girls and that Bourguet had engaged in similar activity in a previous U.N. posting in the Central African Republic. Bourguet's case is the only one that has been prosecuted among 150 allegations against about 50 soldiers and U.N. civilian officials who have served in the Congo peacekeeping mission. At least seven cases of sexual exploitation and abuse have been
documented against peacekeepers based in Bunia, a northeastern town. One civilian has been suspended until the investigation is complete, and another has resigned. The U.N. is conducting further investigations and expects to find more cases. Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent a letter to the Security Council on Wednesday announcing a set of strict measures designed to stem the sexual abuse that has haunted peacekeeping operations for decades. [Bold Emphasis added.]

Anyone naive enough to believe that Kofi Annan is any more willing to get to the bottom of this scandal than he was the Oil-for-Food program should be locked away for their own protection. If the U.N. were merely a country club in rural Georgia, our collective moral outrage would've shut the place down. The United Nations is a cruel joke perpetrated upon an undeserving world. Why have we not yet renounced membership?