These days there is precious little about India that one can be proud of. But good news has just drifted in from afar about the exemplary conduct of Indian Army soldiers and policemen filling my heart with justified pride in our men in uniform.
I’m talking about nearly 8,000 Indian peacekeepers drawn from the army and police force deployed in several United Nations missions in troubled spots across the world. And not a single one of them faces sex abuse charges, according to the latest UN report listing 69 cases of peacekeepers becoming predators in 2015 when sent to protect vulnerable civilians in conflict zones — up from 52 cases in 2014. It’s the first time that the nationalities of the guilty soldiers serving under the UN flag in 10 missions has been disclosed. And mercifully, Indians don’t figure on that roll of shame.
Good conduct on foreign soil is obviously the outcome of intensive training and sensitization programs for peacekeepers before they are sent abroad. Echoing India’s principled stand, the country’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin said that he was “appalled by the recent cases of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA), which have surfaced in some of the UN peacekeeping operations… India has a zero-tolerance policy on SEA and would like that there is zero tolerance on this issue across UN members.”
And Atul Khare, UN Under Secretary-General for Field Support, confessed while releasing the latest report that he was personally hurt and ashamed to call himself a peacekeeper when another peacekeeper rapes and impregnates a 13-year-old girl.
The report indicts peacekeepers from Congo, Morocco, South Africa, Cameroon, Rwanda and Tanzania for sexual abuse and exploitation of women and children in some of the most volatile and poverty-stricken parts of the world. The situation is so serious that the Security Council is mulling over a proposal, which calls for the repatriation of entire peacekeeping units whose soldiers are repeatedly accused of sexual abuse while on UN duty. There is also a possibility that nations, which fail to take action against guilty soldiers, will be barred from peacekeeping duties.
Significantly, India has learnt from its mistakes. Its peacekeepers too committed sex crimes in two African nations between 2010 and 2013 but the government did not gloss over their misdemeanor. There was also a sordid sex-for-cash scandal in 2008 involving Indian peacekeepers. They entered into inappropriate relationships and fathered children leading to paternity tests. But every case was thoroughly investigated and severely dealt with; some soldiers were denied promotions and given short prison terms.
The government’s tough stand is the main reason for the impeccable conduct of Indian peacekeepers reflected in the latest UN report. But a lot still remains to be done. I say this because the excellent behavior witnessed abroad, is in sharp contrast with the Indian security forces’ dismal record in insurgency-wracked zones like Kashmir, northeastern states and the Maoist belt where rapes are as common as “encounters,” or the staged killings of the most wanted. Rights activists have been fighting tooth and nail to stop rapes by armed forces but they have met with little success.
The brilliant record of Indian peacekeepers abroad, which has done the nation proud in gloomy days, should spur security forces deployed in disturbed areas within India, to behave as responsibly as their brothers-in-arm deployed in distant lands. While the peacekeepers deserve a pat on the back for behaving like true soldiers, there is no room for complacency or smugness.
