You may have heard of these stories a lot in the past few months & it is still continuing on in war-torn regions of Iraq & Syria by that certain group. Although, obviously, I don't condone it at all, I do want to bring a bit of balance to the Western media's coverage of this situation where young Yazidi girls & women are being captured & then sold for sexual slavery or forced marriage.
Western media keep harping about this incessantly but they never reported human trafficking & especially young girls, some as young as 8, & women being trafficked for sexual servitude by ... the armed forces of Western countries, with full blessing of UN, under the false pretenses of bringing peace to war-afflicted regions in the world.
Let's take an example from the 2010 movie, "The Whistleblower," starring Rachel Weisz, Monica Bellucci, & Vanessa Redgrave, to name a few. This movie is based on the true events of UN's whistleblower, Kathryn Bolkovac, who was an American cop, recruited as a UN peacekeeper by DynCorp International in post-war Bosnia & Herzegovina, in 1999.
While in Bosnia & Herzegovina, she came across the fact that several young Eastern European (Ukrainian & Russian) girls were being trafficked in Bosnia to serve as sexual slaves for UN peacekeepers. Of course, long story short, she tried to blow the whistle on this but ultimately, not only she was fired, the soldiers (American, Canadian, European etc) were let go & also escaped prosecution for essentially raping these under-age girls.
To top it all off, the defense contractor responsible for all of this, DynCorp International, won further million-$$$ contracts from US Pentagon, for Iraq & Afghanistan.
You can read all about this, with footnotes & links to more news stories & analysis, in the movie's Wikipedia page. Here's a little excerpt from that page in its "Aftermath" section.
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Consistent with Bolkovac's account, The Whistleblower portrays DynCorp International employees as participants in the postwar Bosnian sex trade with the UN turning a blind eye. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hosted a screening of the film & promised action would be taken to prevent further instances of human trafficking. Bolkovac responded, "Unfortunately, the widespread horror is already there. This is not going to be simple or a quick fix." She said that in addition to Bosnia, peacekeepers had violated human rights in Nigeria, Kosovo, Burundi, Sierra Leone, the Congo, Liberia, Cambodia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, Colombia, Guinea & Sudan. ... Following the theatrical release of The Whistleblower, The Guardian reported that other UN officials attempted to downplay the events depicted & that initiatives against trafficking in Bosnia were aborted.
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Now, let's look at this from a "numbers" perspective (of course, this would be a little difficult, since no hard numbers are available anywhere on this human trafficking business & the numbers are all estimate):
Per the Wikipedia page on Yazidis, & news stories on abduction & selling of Yazidi females in British newspapers, Daily Mail & Telegraph (from October 2014), about 5000 - 7000 girls have been sold into sexual slavery. Let's round that up to 10,000.
However, per the Equalitynow.org, "at least 20.9 million adults & children are bought & sold worldwide into commercial sexual servitude, forced labor & bonded labor." Of that 60% are sold for sexual servitude, & 98% of that 60% are made up of women & girls. So that estimate becomes about 12.3 million women are sold & bought for sexual servitude in the world. Even if we assume that only 0.5% of these 12.3 million girls are handled / used by UN peacekeepers, that's still 61,500 girls & women.
Now, let's summarize all this data:
Yazidi girls & women sold into slavery: about 10,000
Countries: Iraq & Syria (2 countries)
UN peacekeepers & defense contractors involved in sexual servitude of girls & women: about 61,500
Countries: Nigeria, Kosovo, Burundi, Sierra Leone, the Congo, Liberia, Cambodia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, Colombia, Guinea & Sudan. (11 countries)
The scale of young girls & women being used as sexual slaves by UN peacekeepers is far larger than what a certain group is doing in Iraq & Syria with Yazidi girls, but the Western media never showed this in the West.
If you are thinking why UN won't do anything to stop it.
Simple answer: it's a huge profitable business.
As we all may know that sex is the best way to release tension & stress (scientifically proven several times over). UN has 1000s of its peacekeepers in war-torn regions around the world. These peacekeepers are far from their families in highly stressful situations everyday. With this sexual slavery business, UN not only shows around the world that it is doing great work in war-torn regions by keeping peace there, but also helps its soldiers relieve their stress & tension with the help of these sexual slaves. Of course, the brothels & human trafficking rings get a huge customer in UN for their despicable business.
It's a win-win for both UN (& the nations who are sending their soldiers) & the human trafficking mafia groups. Loser, obviously, is the silent group of girls & women who are used as nothing more than a piece of meat by these soldiers.
(Disclaimer ... once again ... I am in no way condoning this widespread & increasing practice of selling girls & women for sexual servitude, by any group, by any religion, in any country. I am only trying to bring some perspective to the stories).
Western media keep harping about this incessantly but they never reported human trafficking & especially young girls, some as young as 8, & women being trafficked for sexual servitude by ... the armed forces of Western countries, with full blessing of UN, under the false pretenses of bringing peace to war-afflicted regions in the world.
Let's take an example from the 2010 movie, "The Whistleblower," starring Rachel Weisz, Monica Bellucci, & Vanessa Redgrave, to name a few. This movie is based on the true events of UN's whistleblower, Kathryn Bolkovac, who was an American cop, recruited as a UN peacekeeper by DynCorp International in post-war Bosnia & Herzegovina, in 1999.
While in Bosnia & Herzegovina, she came across the fact that several young Eastern European (Ukrainian & Russian) girls were being trafficked in Bosnia to serve as sexual slaves for UN peacekeepers. Of course, long story short, she tried to blow the whistle on this but ultimately, not only she was fired, the soldiers (American, Canadian, European etc) were let go & also escaped prosecution for essentially raping these under-age girls.
To top it all off, the defense contractor responsible for all of this, DynCorp International, won further million-$$$ contracts from US Pentagon, for Iraq & Afghanistan.
You can read all about this, with footnotes & links to more news stories & analysis, in the movie's Wikipedia page. Here's a little excerpt from that page in its "Aftermath" section.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Consistent with Bolkovac's account, The Whistleblower portrays DynCorp International employees as participants in the postwar Bosnian sex trade with the UN turning a blind eye. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hosted a screening of the film & promised action would be taken to prevent further instances of human trafficking. Bolkovac responded, "Unfortunately, the widespread horror is already there. This is not going to be simple or a quick fix." She said that in addition to Bosnia, peacekeepers had violated human rights in Nigeria, Kosovo, Burundi, Sierra Leone, the Congo, Liberia, Cambodia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, Colombia, Guinea & Sudan. ... Following the theatrical release of The Whistleblower, The Guardian reported that other UN officials attempted to downplay the events depicted & that initiatives against trafficking in Bosnia were aborted.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, let's look at this from a "numbers" perspective (of course, this would be a little difficult, since no hard numbers are available anywhere on this human trafficking business & the numbers are all estimate):
Per the Wikipedia page on Yazidis, & news stories on abduction & selling of Yazidi females in British newspapers, Daily Mail & Telegraph (from October 2014), about 5000 - 7000 girls have been sold into sexual slavery. Let's round that up to 10,000.
However, per the Equalitynow.org, "at least 20.9 million adults & children are bought & sold worldwide into commercial sexual servitude, forced labor & bonded labor." Of that 60% are sold for sexual servitude, & 98% of that 60% are made up of women & girls. So that estimate becomes about 12.3 million women are sold & bought for sexual servitude in the world. Even if we assume that only 0.5% of these 12.3 million girls are handled / used by UN peacekeepers, that's still 61,500 girls & women.
Now, let's summarize all this data:
Yazidi girls & women sold into slavery: about 10,000
Countries: Iraq & Syria (2 countries)
UN peacekeepers & defense contractors involved in sexual servitude of girls & women: about 61,500
Countries: Nigeria, Kosovo, Burundi, Sierra Leone, the Congo, Liberia, Cambodia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, Colombia, Guinea & Sudan. (11 countries)
The scale of young girls & women being used as sexual slaves by UN peacekeepers is far larger than what a certain group is doing in Iraq & Syria with Yazidi girls, but the Western media never showed this in the West.
If you are thinking why UN won't do anything to stop it.
Simple answer: it's a huge profitable business.
As we all may know that sex is the best way to release tension & stress (scientifically proven several times over). UN has 1000s of its peacekeepers in war-torn regions around the world. These peacekeepers are far from their families in highly stressful situations everyday. With this sexual slavery business, UN not only shows around the world that it is doing great work in war-torn regions by keeping peace there, but also helps its soldiers relieve their stress & tension with the help of these sexual slaves. Of course, the brothels & human trafficking rings get a huge customer in UN for their despicable business.
It's a win-win for both UN (& the nations who are sending their soldiers) & the human trafficking mafia groups. Loser, obviously, is the silent group of girls & women who are used as nothing more than a piece of meat by these soldiers.
(Disclaimer ... once again ... I am in no way condoning this widespread & increasing practice of selling girls & women for sexual servitude, by any group, by any religion, in any country. I am only trying to bring some perspective to the stories).
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