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5 Disturbing Facts AP Discovered During Investigation of UN Sex Abuse Scandal

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The key findings on AP’s investigation into the U.N.’s sexual abuse and exploitation controversy:

1. No Sri Lankan peacekeeper has ever been jailed for sexual assault or sexual misconduct despite a child sex ring in Haiti involving at least 134 soldiers that was discovered in 2007.

2. In 2013, Sri Lanka sent a top military general to investigate the alleged rape of a Haitian teenager. The general, who has been dogged by war crimes allegations himself, never talked to the alleged victim and cleared the soldier.

3. The United Nations has expanded individual vetting for Sri Lankan recruits who may have been involved in human rights abuses during the country’s civil war. Some have already been turned away.

4. Women who were raped during Sri Lanka’s generation-long war have begun speaking about how they were held and gang-raped at military camps. One woman said that she was raped by a soldier who later went on to become a U.N. peacekeeper.

5. Since the war ended in 2009, Sri Lanka’s current government has said it is making strides to reconcile its past. Still, despite months of opportunities, it refused repeated requests from the AP to explain how the Haiti sex ring case was investigated or why no one was jailed.

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