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CAR / POWER
STORY: CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC / POWER
TRT: 2:10
SOURCE: MINUSCA
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
DATELINE: 31 MARCH 2016, BAMBARI, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
1. Med shot, UN convoy driving through Bambari
2. Med shot, US Ambassador Samantha Power arriving at IDP camp with US and UN officials
3. Med shot, displaced looking on
4. Various shots, Power listening to displaced accounts
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Samantha Power, Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations”
“We talked to the families about what had happened to their daughters who in many cases were raped by MINUSCA soldiers or who had relationships with MINUSCA soldiers when they were very, very, young and who are now left carrying terrible stigmas as the soldiers have gone back to their countries with no accountability. The victims are left here, ostracized in their own communities and devastated by the experience. So we are trying to fix the problem of sexual abuse and it was extremely important to hear directly from the people who suffered these crimes.”
6. Wide shot, Ambassador Power, Deputy MINUSCA SRSG Diane Corner and MINUSCA Force Commander Lieutenant-général Balla Keïta
7. Med shot, MINUSCA SRSG Diane Corner and MINUSCA Force Commander Lieutenant-général Balla Keïta
8. Wide shot, military and mission officials
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Samantha Power, Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations”
“The leadership now has taken this very, very seriously. They’ve moved peacekeepers away from living, cohabitating with people of the Central African Republic so that is an important prevention step. But the system still has to improve a lot because those soldiers who have been accused of rape and sexual abuse, almost none of them have been held accountable. And if you’re a soldier now, even if the prevention steps are good, ah, if you’re a soldier, you believe that there is impunity because there has never been real accountability and so the leadership here is aware of that, they are trying to fix it, but a lot of the work has to happen in the capitals of the countries that send the troops to MINUSCA.”
10. Wide shot, delegation walking
United States (US) Ambassador Samantha Power met with families today (31 Mar) in Bambari, Central African Republic who were affected by sexual exploitation and abuse of United Nations peacekeepers.
She said families spoke of daughters who had been raped or had relations with MINUSCA (Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic) soldiers when they were very young and now have to live with “terrible stigmas as the soldiers have gone back to their countries with no accountability.”
“The victims are left here, ostracized in their own communities and devastated by the experience,” she said, adding that “we are trying to fix the problem of sexual abuse and it was extremely important to hear directly from the people who suffered these crimes.”
Power said that member states are taking this “very, very seriously” noting the preventative step taken to move peacekeepers away from living or cohabitating with the local population.
She said the system “still has to improve a lot” because almost none of the soldiers accused of rape or sexual abuse have been held accountable.
“If you’re a soldier now, even if the prevention steps are good, you believe that there is impunity because there has never been real accountability” she said adding that “the leadership here is aware of that, they are trying to fix it, but a lot of the work has to happen in the capitals of the countries that send the troops to MINUSCA.”
Earlier this month, the Security Council adopted a resolution, drafted by the US, endorsing Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s plan for tackling the issue of sexual abuse committed by UN peacekeepers.
After the vote, Ambassador Power said the resolution will finally “do something about a cancer, the cancer of sexual exploitation and abuse against people who trust the UN flag.”
This was Ambassador Power’s fourth trip to the Central African Republic.
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