Angeline Chua, Political Expert
Taken from: http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/un-under-fire-for-turning-a-blind-eye-to-peacekeepers-misconduct/2007/05/06/1178390145310.html
Overview
UN police and civilian staff in Timor-Lese have been patronizing the brothels of Dili and UN vehicles can be seen parked outside brothels as well as picking up teenage prostitutes before dusk outside a hotel on Dili’s waterfront. These “peacemakers” have been openly violating what the United Nations would deem as a "zero tolerance policy towards sexual abuse and misconduct” in Timor-Lese, a deeply religious country, including fathering at least 20 Timorese children, leaving the poverty-stricken women ostracised by their community. Sexual abuse cases of children have also been reported. Dangerous driving by the UN staff have resulted in 80 vehicle accidents in the area, some of which included drink driving.
Unfortunately, the UN has apparently turned a “blind eye” prostitution, as a UN employee had said. Also, since 1999, none of the UN employees in the area has been charged with a serious offence. The spokeswoman of United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNIMT), Allison Cooper, has however insisted that they are strictly enforcing the “zero-tolerance” policy towards misconduct.
Analysis
The shameful deeds of the UN in Timor-Lese demonstrate a huge irony in the UN’s mission to render help and restore stability to countries in need. As Atul Khare, an Indian diplomat who was heading the UNIMT had commented about the dangerous driving of the UN employees, put it, UN were in Timor-Lese “to help the people recover from the trauma of conflict and not to perpetuate it." This incident may cause many to wonder if behind every good motivation, there would be hypocrisy to thwart progress made to help people in need. It would be unfortunate if the misconduct of some would cause the public to lose their trust in the whole organization – in this case, the United Nations, where others who have whole-heartedly dedicated their time would be doubted upon as well.
Indeed, globalization has brought more help to the nations in need. It has meant the rise in importance of international non-governmental organizations that solve issues which cannot be resolved within a nation, or by the means of international treaties, which have been criticised as being overly focused on capitalist interests.
However, having people from other countries help solve a problem that is not their own may also mean that half-heartedness and a lack of enthusiasm would suffice after awhile. It is impossible of course, for humans to be infallible, and this applies to the UN employees in Timor-Lese as well. Firstly, it is highly possible that there are some in their midst who do not view the Timorese as of equal importance as people of their own race and language. If they had, there would not have been sexual abuse cases of Timorese children or the fathering of at least 20 children that have left the Timorese women ostracised by their community. This may be a tad sweeping as a statement, but the inevitability of racial discrimination is undeniable.
This incident also shows the consequences of the near absence of strict control over any group of people, including “peacemakers”.
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1 comment:
However, when a country is facing problems, perhaps the best way is to get other countries to help them? Although i agree that other countries may not do their best to help them(as it is not their own country), it is the best possible solution out. The country facing all those problems may not be able to solve it themselves and external help might just be the best solution. This is because having external help would mean having more resources to solve the problem. e.g. effective and strong military power to ensure stability and peace of the country. The country facing the problems may not be able to afford these resources in the midst of all the trouble they are experiencing at the point of time.
I feel that there may be other reasons to why such atrocities occurred, and not just racial discimination. If the UN officials were controlling countries that had people of the same race as themselves, such atrocities might still have occurred. When people have control over others, they may start abusing their powers and do unjust things to them. As such, i feel that saying that racial discrimination is the reason for such atrocities is rather inaccurate, as there may be other reasons.
Cultural/Technology Expert- Yeo Jia Wen
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