Pakistan UN peacekeeping role at risk after 3 punished in Haiti sexual abuse case

3 Pakistani police stationed in Haiti as part of UN Peacekeeping force found guilty of sexual abuse, court martialed.

Three Pakistani police serving with the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti, have been found guilty of sexual abuse and given jail terms, the UN said on Tuesday.

The three police were at the center of one of the two new sexual abuse investigations involving UN police in the Caribbean nation announced in January.

UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said a court-martial had been held by the Pakistani military in Haiti and the three had been found guilty, ordered jailed and repatriated.

"A senior Pakistani official visited Haiti on March 8 and 9 to meet with Haitian authorities and informed them that three individuals were found guilty of sexual exploitation and abuse through a court martial proceeding undertaken in accordance with the national laws of Pakistan," Nesirky told a press briefing.

The three will be imprisoned and given a dishonorable discharge on their return to Pakistan, the UN mission in Haiti, MINUSTAH, was told, according to the spokesman. Details of the prison term were not immediately known.

"The guilty parties have been repatriated and the United Nations is further liaising with the Pakistani authorities to examine the formal details of the procedures and to ensure a followup," Nesirky added.

The three Pakistani police were based at a UN camp in the city of Gonaives. The UN said in January that it was also investigating allegations against UN police in the capital, Port-au-Prince. Details of that case have not been released.

The UN mission in Haiti has been rocked by a series of abuse scandals. Last year Uruguayan troops were accused of raping a Haitian youth after a video was posted on the Internet.

Pakistan peacekeeprers risk being blacklisted

Being the single largest contributor of troops to the UN’s peacekeeping missions around the world, Pakistan now risks being blacklisted.

Following a number of abuse scandals surfacing in the Caribbean nation of Haiti involving UN Peacekeeping troops, the organisation decided to form a blacklist. Countries, whose troops were found involved in sexual abuse crimes, would be banned from     UN missions.

In January 2012, when investigations into two more sex abuse scandals surfaced in Haiti, Edmond Mulet, an assistant secretary general in the UN peacekeeping department, said the world body was considering setting up a sex abuse blacklist.

"We take this very seriously. We are doing everything we can in order to diminish the consequences," Mulet, a former UN envoy in Haiti, said in answer to questions about Haiti at an event in Washington.

Individuals who accused in sex cases are immediately banned from UN duties. The UN is also considering how "we can put some kind of pressure on troop contributing countries, to be put on a special list and that we will not be requesting their assistance or their contributions," Mulet said.

Countries with a record of abuse "have to suffer the consequences," Mulet said, and the record will be "taken into account for future peacekeeping missions if they don't assume their responsibilities."