José Bayardim the Uruguayan Minister of Defense, reacting to a new study on the sexual behavior of the UN peacekeepers of the former UN mission (Minustah), which points in particular the soldiers of Uruguay and Brazil, accused to have committed abuses against girls and underage https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-29576-haiti-flash-hundreds-of-children-born-in-haiti-following-the-abuse-of-peacekeepers.html declared "It is clear that any situation of sexual abuse and exploitation is absolutely reprehensible, but the number of soldiers assigned to peacekeeping missions who have crossed this line is very minor; indeed, out of the 47,500 Uruguayans deployed in missions since the 1990s, there are barely 36 complaints for alleged acts of this type, of which 24 have been recorded in Haiti, with four proven paternity cases, they are very few numerous."

Note that if the presentation of the figures over almost 40 years puts these acts into perspective, it must be remembered that 12,000 Uruguayan peacekeepers (25%) have participated in total (in rotation) in the UN mission since 2004 in Haiti and that most of these notices occurred between 2008 and 2009...

If Bayardi condemns these acts he believes that "these situations do not constitute abuse, because there was no physical violence" asking to look at these acts in the necessary human context recalling "These military contingents were deployed by 6 month mission period and a few have fallen into these unfortunate acts which unfortunately can happen partly due to human nature itself [...]"

The fact remains that these soldiers took advantage of the extreme poverty in Haiti and that this is indeed an abuse, some Uruguayan and Brazilian military officials said they paid minors to have sex.

See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-29576-haiti-flash-hundreds-of-children-born-in-haiti-following-the-abuse-of-peacekeepers.html

SL/ HaitiLibre