SUDAN RESPONSE: EFFORTS TO COMBAT SEXUAL ABUSE AND

UNCLAS KHARTOUM 000218

DEPT FOR AF/SPG AND IO
ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ASEC PGOV PREL KPKO SOCI AU UNSC SU
SUBJECT: SUDAN RESPONSE: EFFORTS TO COMBAT SEXUAL ABUSE AND
EXPLOITATION BY UNAMID PEACEKEEPERS

REF: A) 2008 STATE 125595
B) 2008 KHARTOUM 139
C) KHARTOUM 201


1. (SBU) UNAMID requires all military personnel, civilian employees
and UN Volunteers to undergo training to recognize, report and
prevent sexual exploitation and abuse. John Alstrom, UNAMID Chief
of Staff, and Wayne Hyde, head of the UNAMID Conduct and Discipline
Unit (CDU),said that UNAMID's 12,000 plus peacekeepers in Darfur
are held to strict standards that prohibit and, if violated,
penalize any sexual exploitation and abuse of local populations.
Allegations of UNAMID peacekeepers engaging in abuse are
investigated thoroughly, and if allegations are substantiated, the
investigation is followed by repatriation of the individual involved
in the incident. UNAMID leadership treats the prevention of sexual
exploitation and abuse by its peacekeepers as a high priority in
implementing the organization's mandate in Sudan.


2. (SBU) As a veteran of the MONUC peacekeeping mission in Congo,
Alstrom reported that his first priority upon arrival in Darfur was
to establish the CDU and create a central database to track conduct
and discipline issues within the ranks of UNAMID international staff
and peacekeepers. Not content to rely on the training that
peacekeepers may receive in their home countries, the CDU trains
them on prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse immediately upon
their arrival in Darfur. The CDU is currently conducting a
train-the-trainers exercise to expand its reach into individual
units of peacekeepers.
UNAMID CDU conducts regular outreach to UNAMID team sites throughout
Darfur, and Alstrom said UNAMID plans to deploy CDU officers to be
based full-time in the Darfur cities of Nyala, El Geneina and
Zalingei.


3. (SBU) Sudanese human rights activists do not consider UNAMID
peacekeepers to be engaged in widespread sexual abuse and
exploitation of local populations. Amir Suleiman, director of the
independent Khartoum Center for Human Rights, said that his
organization tracked no sexual exploitation cases involving UNAMID
peacekeepers in 2008. Khalil Tukras, an independent Darfuri human
rights activist, had likewise received no reports of UNAMID
peacekeepers engaged in sexual abuse and exploitation, but he
commented that El Fasher residents remain suspicious that
international workers, including UN staff based at the UNAMID
compound there, solicit local women as prostitutes. He suggested
that UN officials conduct better outreach to residents of El Fasher,
and coordinate with local law enforcement to stem the practice, if
it does exist.

FERNANDEZ