Sexual abuse in Haiti: “It was just a joke”

September 8, 2011

The United Nations concluded that the presumed sexual abuse of a young Haitian man by ”blue helmets” of Uruguay was just a ”joke” and that no crime was committed, but only “misconduct.”

The research report released on Thursday September 8th by the UN, the Uruguayan Navy and Ministry of Defence revealed that only misconduct was involved and there was no crime.

The young Haitian confirms  have been violated by the Uruguayan peacekeepers on 20 July on a UN baseon the southern coast of Haiti. This wasn’t known until  by chance the release of the video taken by a cellphonecamera launched on September 6 by M24Digital.

The Observador of Montevideo published: “according to the analysis of the video as evidence, ruling out the possibility of intent of sexual abuse and that he took their clothes off and you can see that one of the sailorsshirtless, with the camouflage shorts fastened without showing their private parts ”

However, the report warns that “sailors are responsible for engaging in acts of misconduct by acting on events that are not consistent with the guidelines of the mission.”

For its part, the Uruguayan Navy  characterized the case as  ​​”joke”  in the report  and also that the young Haitian man had “a relationship of friendship and relative proximity” with sailors who are in the video. ”The fact did not involve sexual acts or aberrant” and calls it “a violation of the Code of Conduct of the Navy and the United Nations.”

Minister of Defense of Uruguay agrees that “there is no evidence of acts of sexual abuse,” adding that ”there was use of physical force with the sole purpose of making a joke.” He concludes that it is a ”bad behaviorcontrary to moral and ethical actions of the Navy,” whichwas available for the repatriation of those involved.