U.N. vows to act on sex abusers

U.N. Secretary General has said he is shocked over the allegations

KIGALI, Rwanda (CNN) -- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has vowed "swift disciplinary action" against anyone found guilty of sexually exploiting young refugees in west Africa.

Ruud Lubbers also pledged a closer, more watchful eye on the camps to protect those who were "particularly vulnerable."

Speaking in Rwanda on Friday at the end of a week-long trip to Central Africa, he said: "A refugee camp -- no matter how well it is run -- is no place to spend a childhood.

"But those children who do escape the horrors of war to reach our camps deserve at the very least a safe, decent and secure sanctuary where they are provided the basic necessities of life. Anything less is nothing at all."

Earlier in Geneva, Switzerland, the U.N. refugee agency and a leading charity said they had launched an inquiry into the allegations.

The UNHCR and Save the Children UK said the inquiry centres on reports of sexual violence and exploitation of children in refugee camps in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

VIDEO Annan shocked by reports U.N. workers sexually abused refugee children. CNN's Catherine Bond reports (February 28) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   MORE STORIES • Annan shock at sex abuse claims

"Much of it allegedly perpetrated by workers locally employed by national and international NGOs [non-governmental organisations] as well as by U.N. agencies including UNHCR," the UNHCR said in a news release on Wednesday.

According to the initial report, the problem was "extensive" and appeared to involve large numbers of children, most of them girls between the ages of 13 and 18 in established refugee camps.

The report said the girls were apparently being sexually exploited by male employees of the agencies.

The report is based on testimonies, most of them from children, collected during a 40-day mission to the region in late October and November.

"It is particularly distressing to read the accounts of the children," Lubbers said.

"Many were already traumatised, growing up in a region that has been torn by years of conflict, greed and unimaginable brutality."

In the report, a refugee woman in Guinea said no one in her community could get food without first having sexual intercourse.

Another refugee in Sierra Leone said those men who had no wife, sister or daughter to offer the aid workers found it difficult to obtain food aid.

Lubbers also said it was "extremely painful to see the enormous good done by our Sierra Leonean, Guinean, Liberian and international colleagues tarnished by the actions of a minority."

The inquiry found that, "in addition to aid workers," there were "allegations of sexual exploitation against children by international peacekeepers and community leaders."

"There is absolutely no place in the humanitarian world for those who would prey on the most innocent and vulnerable of the world's refugees -- the children," Lubbers said. "Aid workers must adhere to the highest standards of conduct."