News Americas, PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Tues. Sept. 6, 2011: Haiti’s President, Michel Martelly, is speaking out over allegations of sexual abuse involving a teenager and Uruguayan peacekeepers.
Martelly said Monday the 18-year-old man Haitian man had been subjected to a “collective rape.”
Five Uruguayan marines were detained after a video clip of the alleged abuse appeared on the Internet, and their commanding officer was sacked.
The alleged victim and his mother have told Haitian radio stations that he was raped by the Uruguayan marines in the UN base at Port Salut. They have also given evidence to Haitian police and a local judge.
In the video, several men in uniform are heard to laugh as they hold down an 18-year-old man on a bed during what appears to be a sexual assault at a UN base in southern Haiti.
The UN mission in Haiti said it was taking the allegations “very seriously.”
“For now, we cannot say whether it was a case of rape or not,” Minustah spokesperson Eliane Nabaa told Reuters news agency.
Uruguayan Defence Minister Eleuterio Fernandez Huidobro is due to brief parliament on the case today, Sept. 6th.
The Uruguayan military said “severe and exemplary measures” would be enforced to deal with the allegations, and that it would apply the maximum penalty if the accused men were found guilty. Uruguay has 1,200 military personnel in Haiti.
It is the latest controversy involving UN peacekeepers in Haiti.
