U.S. Envoy Quotes Alleged Sexual Abuse Allegations by Lankan troops in Haiti; Says U.N. Peacekeepers Must Be Punished for Sexual Abuse

An Associated Press investigation into a child sex ring in Haiti involving Sri Lankan peacekeepers has prompted an appeal by U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley on Thursday urging all countries that provide troops for U.N. peacekeeping missions to hold soldiers accountable for sexual abuse and exploitation, TIME reported.

Ambassador Haley also warned that "countries that refuse to hold their soldiers accountable must recognize that this either stops or their troops will go home and their financial compensation will end."

Haley was speaking after the Security Council voted unanimously to end the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti in mid-October, sending a strong signal that the international community believes the impoverished Caribbean nation is stabilizing after successful elections.

But the peacekeepers will leave with a tarnished legacy. U.N. troops from Nepal are widely blamed for introducing cholera that has killed at least 9,500 people in Haiti since 2010 and some troops have been implicated in sexual abuse

However Haley during her address cited the AP's investigation detailing how at least 134 Sri Lankan peacekeepers sexually abused and exploited nine Haitian children between 2004 and 2007.

Nine children in the Haiti sex ring — some as young as 12 — allegedly told U.N. investigators how Sri Lankan peacekeepers offered them snacks or money for sex. One boy alleged he slept with as many as 100 soldiers, averaging about four per day.

The details of the sex ring were part of a larger AP investigation of U.N. missions during the past 12 years that found an estimated 2,000 allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers and U.N. personnel around the world.