UN Sex Abuse Scandal

>> NARRATOR: Tonight... >> Some of the world's most vulnerable men, women, and children have been exploited by U.N. peacekeepers who were supposed to be protecting them.

>> NARRATOR: United Nations peacekeepers accused of sexual abuse.

Correspondent Ramita Navai investigates the global crisis.

Finding the victims... >> Can you describe the men to me?

>> NARRATOR: Confronting those responsible... >> Did you feel guilty?

>> NARRATOR: And pressing the U.N. on what it's doing for the abused.

>> But it took our producer a day to track quite a few of them down-- what's happening there?

>> I'll have to find out.

Um...

I'll have to find out.

>> I think there has been a culture of impunity.

I think that's eroding.

>> The fundamental issue in all these cases of sexual exploitation and abuse is criminal accountability.

If they don't go to jail, nothing else matters.

>> NARRATOR: "The U.N.

Sex Abuse Scandal," tonight on "Frontline."

♪ ♪ (Annie speaking): >> RAMITA NAVAI: Annie lives in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country torn apart by warring factions.

Four years ago, after seeing her parents murdered by rebels, she says she was gang-raped.

She then fled for her life.

Annie, what happened after you left your village?

NAVAI: Then, Annie says, she met a United Nations peacekeeper from South Africa.

He'd been sent as part of a mission to protect the local population.

(Annie speaking): >> NAVAI: Annie, why did you think this soldier would be different?

>> NAVAI: Annie's story is not unique.

She's one of over 2,000 young women and children alleged to have been sexually exploited or abused by U.N. peacekeepers-- uniformed and civilian-- in missions around the world since the early 1990s.

From Cambodia to Mozambique, and from Bosnia to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

♪ ♪ For over a decade, the United Nations has been trying to end the abuse.

But even today, it keeps happening.

In the past year, the U.N. has introduced new measures to stamp it out.

I've come to Africa to try and understand why the problem has persisted.

We're right in the middle of Africa, in an area that's been at the epicenter of sexual abuse allegations against the U.N.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has more alleged victims than any other country.

It's here my investigation begins.

(people speaking indistinctly) Almost 20 years ago, U.N. peacekeepers were stationed in the Democratic Republic of Congo amid a bloody civil war.

(gunfire rattles) In 2004, Valerie says, she met a member of the U.N. mission in the city of Goma.

(Valerie speaking): >> NAVAI: Didier Bourguet was working at the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Goma, in charge of transport and logistics, earning $7,000 a month.

He was 40 at the time.

(Valerie speaking): >> NAVAI: Valerie says she only told her mother about Bourguet, and they never reported it to the U.N. Do you know if Didier was doing this to anyone else?

>> NAVAI: Investigators would later discover Bourguet paid go-betweens to provide young girls for him.

He was arrested by the Congolese police in Goma after a sting operation in October 2004, before being handed over to French authorities and charged with rape.

Bourguet was not the only U.N. employee accused of sexual misconduct.

There were 72 allegations of exploitation and abuse in the U.N.'s Congo mission between May and September 2004.

>> All of this is utterly immoral and completely at odds with our mission.

>> NAVAI: U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent his special adviser, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, to investigate.

He was shocked by what he found.

>> Sitting and listening to what victims were saying was really disturbing.

I said it was akin to a lifeguard jumping into a pool, and instead of saving someone who was drowning, to actually drown them, almost.

I mean, it seemed to be as cruel as that.

>> NAVAI: Five months later, Zeid published a report that criticized the U.N.'s own investigations into alleged sexual abuse.

But he said the main reason offenders often evaded justice was that the U.N. had no criminal jurisdiction over its peacekeepers.

>> The U.N. is not a sovereign body.

At the most, the U.N. can dismiss someone from service, but it could not conduct its own trials.

That is for the governments themselves to do.

And if the member state does nothing or shields the individual, then impunity exists.

So, it was these sorts of issues which I found astonishing at the time.

>> NAVAI: Those issues had also caught the attention of Anthony Banbury, who spent more than 20 years inside the U.N. overseeing relief and peacekeeping missions.

>> The fundamental issue in all these cases of sexual exploitation and abuse is criminal accountability, that's the only thing that really matters.

Someone who rapes a woman, a girl, should go to jail.

If they don't go to jail, nothing else matters.

>> NAVAI: Zeid's report tried to address this.

For military peacekeepers, he recommended that member states hold courts martial in the country, making it easier to access witnesses and evidence.

For civilian peacekeepers, he recommended an international agreement to ensure those accused of abuse would face criminal prosecution.

But there's been no widespread effort by U.N. member states to adopt the measures.

>> It is very simply the truth that the decision-making authority rests with the member states, rests with the 193 governments of the United Nations.

And the U.N. Secretariat, the civil servants working in that headquarters on First Avenue, cannot impose on the member states a new judicial system.

>> Now an investigation that is sure to send shockwaves around the world.

>> NAVAI: By early 2005 the international media had got hold of the Didier Bourguet story.

>> ... so-called peacekeepers... >> Scores of young girls in the Congo were somehow lured into sex with a senior U.N. logistics officer named Didier Bourguet.

>> NAVAI: French authorities charged Bourguet with the possession of hundreds of child pornographic images and the rape of at least 20 young girls in Congo.

Despite the many allegations, the French judge ruled there was only enough evidence to convict him of the rape of two minors and sentenced him to nine years in jail.

Valerie, how do you feel now you know that Didier has been punished for what he did to children in Congo?

>> NAVAI: Bourguet is the exception, not the rule.

He remains the only civilian peacekeeper to have been jailed for sexual abuse while working abroad for the U.N.

Most civilian peacekeepers don't even end up in court, and to this day, member states have resisted the proposals aimed at changing that.

>> The U.N. itself doesn't have the ability to try these people.

It is dependent on the home country to try.

And the home country often doesn't have the ability to collect the evidence or to have a process, and that's, that's a catastrophic loophole.

>> NAVAI: After the scandal in Congo, and despite the U.N.'s attempts to deal with the issue, allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse continued in peacekeeping missions around the world.

South Sudan, Ivory Coast, Haiti, and the Central African Republic-- the next stop on my journey.

♪ ♪ >> (shouting) >> NAVAI: In late 2013, the president of the Central African Republic had been deposed, and rival militias were battling for power.

(gunfire) To stop a potential genocide, France sent peacekeepers under a U.N. Security Council mandate.

Their mission was named Operation Sangaris.

Half a million people had been made homeless.

Many sought refuge in a camp at the airport, run by the French.

(horn beeps) I met a girl who'd fled to that refugee camp.

Her name is Daniella.

We're protecting her identity.

(Daniella speaking): >> NAVAI: Can you describe the men to me?

What did they look like?

>> NAVAI: Daniella says two French soldiers raped her inside the airport camp.

Her father told us she was bleeding heavily, and he took her to a charity-run medical center, where she was given antibiotics.

But they didn't know what more they could do.

>> NAVAI: Daniella's family didn't report her rape, so it remained unrecorded by the U.N.

I also met a boy, who asked to be called Alexi.

He was at the same camp and says he was abused by French peacekeepers, too.

(Navai speaking French): (Alexi speaking): >> NAVAI: Word of the abuse soon spread around the camp.

When the news reached the local U.N. mission, it sent one of its human rights investigators to interview six children, four of whom were alleged victims; the other two were witnesses.

The investigator compiled an internal report based on the children's testimony.

The report detailed allegations against around 20 peacekeepers, some of whom were identified from their tattoos and other physical descriptions.

>> There were a number of absolutely stunning revelations just reading this-- it can't have been more than six pages long.

>> NAVAI: Paula Donovan held senior positions within the U.N. over a number of years.

She set up Code Blue to campaign against U.N. sex abuse.

>> The United Nations treated this as though it were simply another report from the field, and for months and months, they just went, went about their business without addressing it in any way.

>> NAVAI: Almost a year after the alleged abuse, news of the report leaked to the international media.

The U.N. secretary-general set up an independent inquiry to examine what had gone wrong.

A decade on from Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein's report, the new inquiry was even more damning.

>> This was a serious failure.

Most importantly, the lack of coordination between policies leaves most victims unattended and vulnerable.

>> NAVAI: The inquiry said this amounted to "an abuse of authority" on the part of three top U.N. officials.

And the U.N. fired the head of mission in the Central African Republic.

Isobel Coleman was a U.S. ambassador to the U.N. at the time.

>> I must say from my perspective as a diplomat, looking at this all unfolding, it seemed that it was not a high-water mark for the U.N., to put it mildly.

It's incredible to me that people had that report in their hands and didn't act upon it.

>> NAVAI: By now, the French prosecutors were investigating the allegations.

In May 2015, they launched a full-scale criminal inquiry into the rape of minors.

The investigation centered on four members of the 152nd Infantry Regiment, who'd been identified by the victims.

Nicknamed the Red Devils, the regiment is based in Colmar in the east of France; a 30-foot statue honors them in their hometown.

But after more than three years examining the claims, the prosecutors finally threw out the case against the four soldiers.

They said the testimony of the children was inconsistent and questioned whether they might have been manipulated by adults seeking financial compensation from the French.

(Marie Grimaud speaking French): >> NAVAI: One of the reasons the case was dismissed is that the French investigators found, I'm quoting, "contradictions and implausibilities."

What are they referring to?

(Grimaud speaking French): >> NAVAI: Marie Grimaud is appealing the decision to abandon the case against the soldiers.

The boy that we spoke to hadn't spoken to French investigators.

I told her the boy Alexi's story and also asked her about the soldiers who Daniella says raped her.

She gave us description of where it happened and of the soldiers.

So she said that one of them was white, had a snake tattoo.

Have you got a description of a man like this?

>> NAVAI: The French military declined to speak to us about the allegations or put us in touch with any of the accused soldiers from the 152nd regiment.

We tried to interview the prosecutors, but they also declined, saying the appeal against their ruling is still being considered.

How do you feel about the men that did this to you?

(Daniella speaking): >> (speaking local language) >> (speaking French): >> NAVAI: In response to the French scandal, in the summer of 2015, the U.N. appointed a new head of peacekeeping in the Central African Republic to replace his predecessor.

>> I found a very demoralized staff.

They were all, you know, in shock.

We were just... realizing, open our eyes to a very big, you know... scandal, call it, let's call it a scandal.

>> NAVAI: A new commander of troops followed that November.

>> We realized that something got to be done and fast enough to stop this.

Because it's just...

It was just so shameful, for all of us.

Sexual exploitation and abuse was about to kill peace operations and particularly our mission.

To kill us with, really, not bullets, like the armed group, but with shame.

♪ ♪ >> NAVAI: Even as the U.N. struggled with the abuse scandal, fighting in the Central African Republic was spiraling out of control.

It was particularly desperate in the town of Bambari, around 250 miles north of the capital.

Tens of thousands had fled their homes to escape killings and rapes by militias.

The U.N. needed to get more peacekeepers on the ground fast.

>> If you're in a crisis situation, and you think you've got genocide erupting in the Central African Republic, and you're looking for troops to come and save tens, hundreds of thousands of lives, you know, maybe you're not asking so many questions about how they've been vetted and what their, you know, training has been on sexual exploitation and abuse.

You want troops on the ground yesterday, you know, to save lives.

>> NAVAI: Facing an emergency, the U.N. deployed around 800 Congolese soldiers who were already stationed nearby.

But the Congolese army had recently been accused by the U.N. of rape and sexual violence against its own population.

What did you think of Congolese troops serving as peacekeepers, knowing that Congolese troops came from the army that has a terrible record for human rights abuses?

>> I believe it was a mistake to put the troops from the D.R.C.

into the U.N. mission in C.A.R.

>> NAVAI: Anthony Banbury was in charge of field support to peacekeepers.

He says he expressed concerns about the Congolese soldiers at the time, but had no direct say in the decision to deploy them.

>> If there are allegations that a unit that has been deployed to a peacekeeping mission has been involved in human rights abuses back home, that's a huge cause for concern, a huge red flag, and should be immediately investigated.

>> NAVAI: The Congolese troops pacified Bambari-- but left new allegations of sexual violence and exploitation in their wake.

(Manda speaking): >> NAVAI: Manda-- the name she asked us to use-- was an 11-year-old schoolgirl at the time.

>> NAVAI: Manda told her mother, but they didn't report the rape to the U.N.

But towards the end of 2015, many new allegations began to emerge against troops from five different peacekeeping nations, including the Congolese.

The U.N. official breaking the news to the press was Anthony Banbury.

>> It's hard to imagine the outrage that people working for the United Nations and for the causes of peace and security feel when these kinds of allegations come to light.

>> NAVAI: A week later, on the fifth of February 2016, he resigned, saying that U.N. was failing its mission.

>> I worked on it for six years, and on the one hand, I was very proud of it.

But the bottom line was, there was still a big lack of criminal accountability, and that was personally very distressing.

>> NAVAI: The U.N. responded to the abuse scandals in the Central African Republic by publicizing the names of countries whose troops were accused of abuses, and passed a resolution giving the secretary-general the right to send peacekeepers home.

By the end of February, the contingent from the Democratic Republic of Congo had been expelled.

♪ ♪ Two months later, in the country's capital, Kinshasa, 14 soldiers were put on trial for rape.

(man speaking French) >> NAVAI: The hearing took place in a courtroom set up in the prison grounds and filmed by news crews at the time.

(man speaking French): >> NAVAI: But the trial has stalled, and there have only been two brief hearings in over two years.

Government officials told us they couldn't afford to fly in witnesses to give evidence.

The Congolese authorities say they're serious about trying their peacekeepers.

But the process is dragging on, two years and counting.

And here's where the system consistently fails.

The U.N. says it's up to the countries that contribute troops to punish perpetrators.

But that rarely happens.

The alleged rapists remain locked up, awaiting trial.

Meanwhile, victims are left waiting, too.

(Manda speaking): ♪ ♪ >> NAVAI: In January 2017, a new secretary-general took office-- António Guterres.

He announced that fighting sexual abuse was a top priority.

>> We are determined to ensure that the voices of victims are heard.

Victims must be at the center of our response if we want our zero-tolerance policy to be successful.

>> NAVAI: Guterres introduced a new role of victims' rights advocate.

And he made an early visit to the Central African Republic.

>> We know that the good work and the tremendous sacrifice of peacekeepers around the world has been tarnished by the appalling acts of some U.N. personnel who have harmed the people they were meant to serve.

♪ ♪ >> NAVAI: When we were in the Central African Republic soon afterwards, the U.N. invited us to see their latest attempts to deal with the problem, not just sexual abuse but what they call exploitation.

So we're on this night patrol with the U.N. military police, and they're going around from barracks to barracks, mostly checking that soldiers are observing the curfew and also checking that there are no women and children anywhere near the barracks.

Although to be honest, you can see it's a really big convoy, and I'd be surprised if there are any women or children anywhere near the barracks, because you can see them from a mile away.

>> NAVAI: And this is the S.E.A., the sexual exploitation and abuse training?

>> Yeah.

>> NAVAI: Uh-huh, and then you said that... the first question you asked, were any women, children outside?

So you're checking.

>> NAVAI: Right.

To prevent peacekeepers from even paying women for sex the secretary-general has forbidden U.N. personnel here from socializing with locals when off duty.

So the thinking is that if they're bored, they may be tempted by women, may be tempted by sex-- is that the thinking?

>> The tour of duty is one year.

That's why to some of the countries, they said, "It's too much."

>> NAVAI: To ask for a soldier not to have sex for a year?

>> Yeah.

Difficult, but this is...

I mean, I say to the soldiers, even though it is humanly difficult, there is no other way out.

I'm just being honest.

We have very good people, we have people that are so-so, we got bad people, and we got very bad people.

♪ ♪ >> NAVAI: In the same month as the secretary-general's visit to the Central African Republic, the U.N. received a report of a new rape case in Bambari.

A young woman was found half-naked and barely conscious right here, at the foot of these stairs.

She says she was walking home after a funeral, and the last thing she clearly remembers is being offered a cup of tea by U.N. peacekeepers at this checkpoint here, just behind me.

(Jean-Gaston Endjileteko speaking French): >> NAVAI: The alleged rapists were Mauritanian peacekeepers.

The young woman who says she was raped is called Mauricette.

We found her living with her family on the outskirts of town.

(Mauricette speaking): >> NAVAI: After the rape was reported by the hospital, Mauricette was interviewed by a local representative from the U.N.

Her family then wanted to know what had happened to the Mauritanian soldiers.

(man speaking French): >> NAVAI: The Mauritanian mission at the U.N. didn't respond to our repeated requests for comment.

We also wanted to know if Mauricette had heard anything from the U.N. following her initial interview.

(Mauricette speaking): >> NAVAI: How long has it been?

(Mauricette speaking): >> NAVAI: In Bambari, we spoke to a 17-year-old girl.

She told us that she hasn't heard anything from the U.N. or its partners for two months.

She doesn't know what's happening from her case.

>> This is unacceptable.

I hope, you know, through you, we may be able to reach out to that person and make sure that she gets, you know, what is due to her, and that our services will reach out.

But it is absolutely unacceptable.

>> NAVAI: We came to New York to try to interview the secretary-general about what we'd found during our investigation.

He declined.

Instead, we were offered an interview with the woman he'd appointed as his special coordinator on sexual exploitation and abuse.

>> You know, the job of a peacekeeper is to protect, first and foremost.

>> NAVAI: Jane Holl Lute has been working on the issue for years, and held a senior position in the U.N. at the time of the 2005 Zeid report.

>> Our watchword is zero tolerance.

What does it mean?

It means zero complacency and zero impunity.

>> NAVAI: In Bambari, a town in the Central African Republic, a young woman said that she'd been gang-raped by Mauritanian peacekeepers; this is logged on your own system.

When we spoke to her, she said that she hadn't had any contact from the U.N. in two months.

She was never told about her case.

>> Part of the reason that the secretary-general appointed a victims' rights advocate at such a senior level is to correct those kinds of shortcomings.

>> NAVAI: But do you think it's acceptable that a woman who was so recently raped has initial contact with the U.N. and then doesn't hear for two months?

>> No, of course, of course I don't think it's acceptable.

And of course I think what needs to be done is that she gets the support she needs in any and all cases.

>> NAVAI: You yourself have said that the problem of sexual exploitation and abuse is either an ongoing or potential problem "in every single one of our missions."

Why should we believe that this is something that can be fought, when for decades, it's an ongoing problem, and peacekeepers are still raping?

>> It is an ongoing problem everywhere, and do we have to face the reality that there is nothing we can do about it?

No.

We have to ask ourselves, "Are we doing everything we can?"

You know, we're... there's no wand-waving here, you know?

There's no magic swish and flick, and it goes away.

♪ ♪ >> NAVAI: Back in Congo, the U.N. invited us to see how it's reinforcing its zero-tolerance message.

(woman translating) >> NAVAI: And they also invited us to attend an event they were hosting in Bujavu, one of Goma's poorest neighborhoods.

(dance music playing) Adama N'dao is in charge here.

She and her team encourage victims to report sexual exploitation and abuse, and promise them support.

(N'dao speaking French): We are doing a lot of outreach, educating the communities, providing them with all the support that they need in order to make sure that once they see the situation is worsening, to alert us.

♪ Chop-chop in the bando ♪ ♪ I don't want to look like... ♪ >> NAVAI: I wanted to know whether Adama's efforts to get victims to report abuse were working.

♪ ♪ Francine got a job as a housekeeper for a civilian peacekeeper in Goma to support her family.

She says it soon became clear that she was expected to have sex with her boss.

(Francine speaking): (Alice Kasemwana speaking French): >> NAVAI: Alice Kasemwana works for a local NGO that provides social and psychological support for victims of sexual abuse like Francine.

(Kasemwana speaking): ♪ ♪ >> NAVAI: Soon after Francine became pregnant, the man she says is the father of her child disappeared.

(Francine speaking): >> NAVAI: Since 2010, the U.N. has recorded 194 paternity claims-- and these are just the cases it knows about.

In 2016, the U.N. set up a trust fund to provide support for, among other things, young mothers and their peacekeeper babies.

But Francine didn't benefit.

This is because the U.N. didn't know of her existence-- or many others like her, who don't report their cases.

This box that I'm standing in front of is the complaints box, where young women are supposed to drop off allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation, but of course look at it.

I mean, it's a load of acronyms, what does that mean?

And it's not in the local language, it's in English and French.

I've never met any young woman here, and I've spoken to so many, who've known of this box's existence.

(speaking French): >> Non.

>> NAVAI: Non.

(Navai and man speaking): >> NAVAI: Is there anything in it?

Shall I have a look in this?

Can't see.

Empty.

I wanted to put our findings to the U.N.'s acting head of mission in Congo.

When we spoke directly to women and girls, they wanted to tell somebody.

They didn't know how to.

Does this surprise you?

>> Well, as I said, I'm not sure that we've met, that we have identified everybody, so it doesn't surprise me that you have found such cases.

What we are trying to do is to carry out our communication activities in the areas in which we work, and we'll continue to learn how to do it better, and we just have to do it better.

>> NAVAI: The U.N. has also pledged to find and support victims from the past-- women such as Valerie, who was just 14 when she says Didier Bourguet began paying her for sex.

Back in 2005, the U.N.'s head of mission in Congo had made a direct promise to Bourguet's victims.

>> We will make an effort to find them, and we will make an effort to include them under our victim support program.

That's, that's, that's what we have to do.

>> NAVAI: And nobody from the U.N. has ever talked to you about this or interviewed you about this?

>> NAVAI: I put this to the U.N. official now in charge of tracking victims.

Adama, we found a woman who had been abused as a child by Didier Bourguet.

>> (gasps) >> NAVAI: Yeah.

She said nobody ever spoke to her from the U.N. She didn't even know that he was imprisoned.

So these children that were abused, raped by Didier, was there ever any follow-up?

>> No, we could not trace them.

>> NAVAI: But we'd been able to find them through our local producer within days of arriving in Goma.

We heard of several of his victims who are around and living in Goma who never heard from the U.N. Do you think that's acceptable?

>> No.

And we'll correct it.

You've identified them, so we will correct that.

>> NAVAI: And why hasn't the U.N. tracked any of his victims down?

>> Well, that's a history that goes back many, many years, more than a decade.

I can't explain all of that.

But I think it's helpful that you've identified these individuals so that we can do so.

>> NAVAI: But it took our Congolese producer a day to track quite a few of them down.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> NAVAI: So what's happening there?

>> I'll have to find out.

Um...

I'll have to find out.

♪ ♪ >> NAVAI: It's now more than ten years since Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein wrote his report about tackling U.N. sexual abuse.

Successive secretaries-general have supported his recommendations to improve criminal accountability.

But so far, the U.N. has been unable to persuade member states to adopt them.

Why are the member states fighting this?

Why won't they adopt it?

>> You have to ask the member states.

I mean, you put me... >> NAVAI: Why do you think?

>> I don't know, because for me... >> NAVAI: But you must have an idea.

>> No, I don't, I don't know.

I don't know, honestly, I don't know.

>> NAVAI: But if you can't explain this to me, you know, the man who saw this on the ground ten years ago, who wrote the seminal report, who spent time thinking about this and time thinking about solutions-- if you can't tell me why, who can?

>> The member states.

You have to interview them.

>> NAVAI: We approached the U.N. representatives of numerous member states whose personnel have been accused of abuse and exploitation, including France, Congo, and Mauritania.

None of them agreed to be interviewed.

On the issue of accountability, ultimately, where does the buck stop?

Is it the secretary-general?

Is it the member states?

>> Well, the way it...

I mean, it's both right now.

I mean, the secretary-general has a big microphone and should be using it on these issues.

But member states, of course, have their bit to do.

It's their, you know, parliaments, their legislatures, that need to pass these laws.

It's their militaries that need to provide accountability.

>> The reality is today, there is no guarantee of criminal accountability for someone who commits rape inside a U.N. peacekeeping mission.

Despite a lot of effort by a lot of people and a strong commitment by the top reaches of the U.N., the systems in place now are full of holes.

>> NAVAI: For all the talk of reform, the numbers remain stark.

There have been more than 1,700 allegations since the U.N. began making them public 15 years ago, but it's only recorded 53 uniformed peacekeepers being sent to jail for sexual offenses.

And only one international civilian-- Didier Bourguet.

Bourguet, I discovered, has now completed his prison sentence and is a free man.

In June 2018, I tracked him down to the south of France.

(birds chirping) He told me he's homeless and keeps his possessions in the woods.

Although he was convicted of just two rapes, I wanted to know about his many other alleged victims.

How many children did you have sex with in Congo?

>> NAVAI: How easy was it for a U.N. employee to find children and young girls to have sex with?

>> NAVAI: How old were the children you were having sex with?

>> NAVAI: But you were convicted of having sex with a 12-year-old.

>> NAVAI: Did you know what you were doing was wrong?

>> Yes.

>> NAVAI: Did you feel guilty?

>> NAVAI: We asked the French prosecutors about Bourguet's admission that he's had sex with multiple children, and our discovery of a new alleged victim.

They told us they had passed the information on to police to investigate.

For Bourguet's alleged victims like Valerie, the scars remain deep.

♪ ♪ >> NAVAI: The women and children in this film requested we pass on their details to the United Nations.

Daniella was later contacted by the U.N. and has received counseling.

Manda has also heard from the U.N. in the Central African Republic.

Valerie has been in touch with the U.N. team in Congo, as has Francine.

They're both still waiting to hear back.

Mauricette has had no further contact from the U.N.-- four months after we brought her case to their attention.

So far this year, the United Nations has recorded 32 new allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse against peacekeepers.

♪ ♪ >> 2,300 children have been taken from their parents.

>> NARRATOR: "Frontline" has been reporting on the border for over a year.

>> Under pressure, President Trump said he keep families together.

>> But the border is going to be just as tough as it's been.

>> NARRATOR: Correspondent Martin Smith investigates the policy decisions.

>> Plenty of confusion, both on the border and inside the beltway.

>> NARRATOR: And the impact on children and families.

>> Go to pbs.org/frontline for a Q&A with correspondent Ramita Navai about how she tracked down new victims.

>> We found her living with her family on the outskirts of town.

>> And read more about what the U.N. is now doing for them.

>> We have to ask ourselves, "Are we doing everything we can?"

>> And read the latest on the Didier Bourguet story.

>> Did you know what you were doing was wrong?

>> Yes.

>> Connect to the "Frontline" community on Facebook and Twitter, and sign up for our newsletter at pbs.org/frontline.

>> For more on this and other "Frontline" programs, visit our website at pbs.org/frontline.

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Sex Abuse Scandal" is available on DVD.

To order, visit shop.PBS.org or call 1-800-PLAY-PBS.

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