OK, take a deep breath, 'cause this one's gonna be a shocker (well, not really).

Apparently, U.N. peacekeepers and international aid workers have been requiring rather repugnant quid-pro-quos for food. Or so says Save the Children U.K.:

LONDON — Save the Children UK says in a report released Tuesday that it has uncovered evidence of widespread sexual abuse of children at the hands of peacekeepers and international aid workers in war zones and disaster areas.

The report said more than half the children interviewed knew of cases of coerced sex and improper sexual touching and that in many instances children knew of 10 or more such incidents carried out by aid workers or peacekeepers.

In some cases, children as young as 6 years old were abused, the report said.

But wait - it gets worse:

The report details many types of abuse allegedly committed by peacekeepers and aid workers, including trading food for sex, coerced sex, improper touching and kissing, forced prostitution and using children for pornographic purposes.

It's worth noting that the U.N. is "deeply disturbed" by the reports. I wonder if that's a Burma cyclone kind of deeply disturbed, or a genocide in Darfur kind of deeply disturbed, or what. They seem to be deeply disturbed a lot over there.

Then again, I'd say the U.N. is always deeply disturbed - in a highly-corrupt-and-not-dealing-with-reality sort of way.

Hopefully, the no-doubt-forthcoming sternly worded letter will clear up any confusion.

Labels: United Nations