To serve and protect

A report damning the shameful behaviour of UN peace-keepers has been produced by the Jordanian ambassador to the UN. Jordanian peace-keepers do not rate a mention. (See original report here.) Perhaps Jordanian peace-keepers were not included because they should be investigated separately:

It caused outrage among East Timorese and Australian troops sent to protect them, raised tensions among UN peacekeepers to a deadly new level and caused senior UN staff to resign in disgust.

The deployment of Jordanian peacekeepers to East Timor was probably one of the most contentious UN decisions to follow the bloody independence ballot. It was eclipsed only by the cover-up and inaction that followed when the world body learned of their involvement in a series of horrific sex crimes involving children living in the war-battered Oecussi enclave.

Children were not the only victims - in early 2001, two Jordanians were evacuated home with injured penises after attempting sexual intercourse with goats.

The UN mission in East Timor led by Sergio Vieira de Mello (who was later killed in Baghdad) did its best to keep the matter hushed up. The UN military command at the time was only too happy to oblige.

Today the cry for justice from the child victims continues to go unheard.

A new broom is probably the only way to purge the entrenched thugs and conmen running the UN but, who would wield it?