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UN Aid workers implicated in damaging food for sex scandal
2006-05-10 08:38:45
By Jack Moowe
Early this week, the United Nations found itself firmly in the firing line over allegations that some of its aid workers were sexually exploiting young girls in Liberia, some as young as eight years of age.
According to the humanitarian aid organization, ’Save the Children’ aid workers from the WFP (World Food Program), have been trading food for sex from young girls in Liberia, a sad fact which amounts to a damning indictment of the United Nations.
And this tragic tale of cruel manipulation by UN personnel seemingly extends to UN Peacekeeping Forces also as some teenage Liberian girls allege that their children were fathered by some UN Forces, brought in to stabilize the country after so many years of brutal conflict.
The disturbing revelations have shocked the international community and Jordan Ryan, the acting Head of the UN Mission in Liberia says that the UN as a whole is ’horrified by these allegations.’
Indeed, it seems as if some expeditious house -cleaning is now vitally needed at the United Nations so that such gross abuses of power become a thing of the past.
Meanwhile in Thailand, the country’s constitutional court ruled earlier this week that the recent elections held in the country were ’unconstitutional’.
The Thai opposition parties largely boycotted the polls and although the former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra won the elections, the electoral process did not have much credibility.
In the wake of the elections, so much controversy surrounded the then Prime Minister Shinawatra that he was forced to stand down. However, as Thailand’s constitutional court also ruled this week that fresh elections should be held, it remains unclear whether Thaksin Shinawatra will decide to take part again in these new polls.
If he does, this will surely set him upon a collision course with the opposition who have already indicated that they will participate in the new elections.
Moving on, millions of dollars were at stake this Monday as a UK court delivered its verdict on whether Apple Computers had illegally used the Beatles’ Apple Corps name and trademark logo to sell music on its i-tunes website, thus violating a previous agreement reached between the two companies.
The Beatles had taken the case to court for apparently under the terms of the agreement reached in the nineties, Apple Computers would not venture into music and Apple Corps would do vice-versa.
In this case though, there were many fine legal points to be determined and in the end, the verdict went in favour of Apple Computers. But Apple Corps have said that they will appeal, so there could yet be another twist in this fierce legal battle.
We now turn to the conflict in Darfur, which has been in the spotlight over the past week.
Last week, the Darfurian rebels and the Sudanese government came to an agreement on the cessation of hostilities, thus paving the way for vital aid to reach the stricken region.
200,000 people have been killed in the 3- year conflict in Darfur and judging from President Bush’s statement this Monday, the White house is determined to ensure that no further deaths occur.
In his statement, President Bush indicated that U.S.A. would like to see U.N. forces deployed in Darfur to bolster security. The American president also ordered the shipment of emergency food aid to Darfur and called on other nations to help in this humanitarian relief effort.
Finally, in reference to the conflict, President Bush hit the nail on the head when he said,’We will call genocide by its rightful name.’
Hopefully then, with the possible deployment of U.N. forces in the pipeline, a new chapter may be beginning in Darfur.
And now let us focus our attention on the Jacob Zuma rape trial which ended this Monday.
The reading of the verdict took a lengthy six hours and it cleared the former South African Deputy President of rape charges.
This will come as vindication for Mr. Zuma whose supporters still feel that he was the victim of a grand conspiracy within the ANC to destroy his political career.
However, some analysts feel that this trial has already fatally undermined Mr. Zuma’s political credibility.
Some of his bizarre comments on HIV/AIDS have angered AIDS activists and called into question his beliefs about the deadly pandemic.
Sadly, Mr. Zuma’s legal woes do not end here as he will face corruption charges later on in the year. It all adds up to what has been a mighty fall from grace for the former Deputy President.
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