RESPONSE: EFFECTIVENESS OF UN EFFORTS TO COMBAT SEXUAL

					  UNCLAS CASABLANCA 000819 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PHUM KPRO PGOV MO
SUBJECT: RESPONSE: EFFECTIVENESS OF UN EFFORTS TO COMBAT SEXUAL 
EXPLOITATION AND ABUSE IN UN PEACEKEEPING MISSIONS 
 
REF: STATE 112531 
 
					

1. (U) This cable is sensitive but unclassified. Please protect
accordingly.



2. (U) This cable is a response to a request for information on
MINURSO's efforts to combat trafficking in persons (TIP) and sexual
exploitation and abuse (SEA) involving UN peacekeeping mission
personnel in the Western Sahara.



3. (SBU) According to the government of Morocco, TIP and SEA are
not a problem with the MINURSO mission in the Western Sahara. In
discussions with officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
(MFA), poloff was informed that MINURSO personnel have cooperated
fully with the GOM in efforts to deal with trafficked persons found
in the Western Sahara. GOM has no complains about the MINURSO
peacekeepers being involved in TIP or SAE. Representatives from
both the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Morocco
and the Moroccan NGO Friends and Family of the Victims of Illegal
Migration concur with GOM's position. We are unable to locate any
reports in the media regarding sexual exploitation or abuse
involving MINURSO personnel. We believe that the general public
perceives no problem of this nature with MINURSO.



4. (SBU) During talks with MINURSO Force Commander Maj. General
Kurt Mosgaard, Civil Affairs Officer, Clair Bamber, and former Head
of Operations for Confidence Building Measures, Laith Khalaf, poloff
was impressed with the level of commitment to fighting TIP and SEA
problems. The leadership is not only concerned with prevention of
abuses within the organization it is going out of its way to assist
victims it finds in the desert who have been trafficked or abused by
others.

GREENE