UN rejects refugee sex abuse allegations

The allegations sent shame through the organisation

By David Bamford BBC correspondent at the United Nations

The United Nations has rejected allegations that any of its peacekeepers and aid agency workers have been engaged in the sexual exploitation of refugees in West Africa.

An internal UN report says a six-month probe has been unable to confirm any of the cases of alleged abuse that had been detailed during an independent investigation last February.

We feel the consultants' report unfairly tarnished the reputation and credibility of a large majority of UN aid workers and peacekeepers in the field

UN spokesman Dileep Nair

The allegations of widespread sexual abuse involving locally-employed UN staff in West Africa sent a wave of horror and embarrassed shame through the entire organisation.

The reports, which emerged from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, spoke of aid workers and peacekeepers obtaining sexual favours from refugees, mostly young girls, in exchange for food.

'Baseless'

The practice seemed to have been confirmed in an investigation by independent consultants appointed jointly by the UN's own refugee agency and the British-based charity Save the Children.

But now, the UN has concluded that the main allegations are baseless.

Indeed, a UN spokesman, Dileep Nair, chided those involved in the original investigation.

"The consultants' allegations of widespread sexual exploitation by UN aid workers and peacekeepers cannot be substantiated," he said.

"Indeed, we feel the consultants' report unfairly tarnished the reputation and credibility of a large majority of UN aid workers and peacekeepers who are out there in the field."

Mr Nair said that in some cases, the alleged victims' accounts have since been discredited, in others, efforts to identify the victims had been unsuccessful.

Mr Nair acknowledged a handful of incidents which he said had been properly dealt with, and he acknowledged that sexual harassment in the camps of West Africa was an issue.

However he said it was not an issue for which the aid workers themselves were directly responsible.