Sports Calendar

Jordan’s Prince Zeid Raad Al Hussein, a special adviser to the UN Secretary-General, who led one investigative team, said in a confidential report obtained by The Times: “The situation appears to be one of ‘zero-compliance with zero- tolerance’ throughout the mission.”

Sexual exploitation and abuse mostly involves the exchange of sex for money (on average between $1 — 52p — and $3), for food — for immediate consumption or to barter — or for jobs, especially affecting daily workers, the prince’s report said.

In addition, victims spoke of incidents of rape, as well as “rape disguised as prostitution” where a girl was raped and then given money or food afterwards to give the appearance of a transaction having taken place.

Three civilian UN staff have already been suspended.

A man who worked for the UN’s investigative arm in Kinshasa has resigned after being accused of consorting with a prostitute.

The Frenchman with the homemade pornography accused of paedophilia was sent back to France in October and is in jail facing charges of sexually assaulting a minor.

“The fact that these things happened is a blot on us. It’s awful,” Jean-Marie Guehenno, the UN’s under-secretary-gen- eral for peacekeeping, said.

“What is important is to get to the bottom of it and fight it and make sure that people who do that pay for what they have done.”

The UN has now plastered its code of conduct on UN premises in Congo. The code forbids sex with prostitutes or women under the age of 18 — even though the Congolese age of consent is 14.

But the UN continues to hand out free condoms to peacekeepers because of the fear of Aids.

A second internal UN report, also obtained by The Times, detailed the extent of prostitution by “street girls” and “girlfriends” in Kisangani.

“One strategy is to find another UN staffer with a ‘girl friend’ and ask the girl if she knows a friend. She will usually be only too happy to comply and a more or less suitable candidate will be dispatched to the staff member’s house,” the report said.

Mireille Byongo, 20, a prostitute from Goma, said that she had had no problem gaining admission to the town’s UN barracks.

“The guys on duty at the entrance know why we have come,” she said. She said she had once gone to the tent of her Moroccan “boyfriend” and found him with a young girl aged “anything from 10 to 12”. Disgusted, she left.

“Never forget this is Heart of Darkness country. People do things here just because they can,” one female UN employee said, in a reference to Joseph Conrad’s novel about the abuses of the former Belgian Congo.

THE MISSION

• Military strength: 11,570 uniformed personnel, including 10,848 troops, 567 military observers

• Civilian staff: 155 civilian police supported by 707 international civilian personnel and 1,135 local civilian staff

• Contributing countries: 47 including Uruguay (1,800 troops), Pakistan (1,700), South Africa (1,400) and India (1,300)

• Fatalities: 33 military personnel, eight observers, two foreign civilians and one local civilian

• Approved budget: $746.10 million (£390 million), July 1, 2004-June 30, 2005

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Afghanistan News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Mandela’s tribe threatens President Zuma
• The French empire strikes back
• Wife of cheating governor exacts a political revenge