"Didier Bourguet shifts in his seat and adjusts his red tie. He is finding it hard to recall how many children he raped when he was working for the United Nations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2004: 'I would say about 20, maybe 25. I didn't count.'



Bourguet was earning $7,000 a month as head of logistics in the peacekeeping mission in Goma while getting locals to procure children for him. He had two assets that ensured children trusted him: he was white and he worked for the UN.



He said the sex was consensual but is unsure whether the children were afraid to say no: 'I'm not sure. I don't think so but I'm not sure. Could be.'



After the Congolese police arrested Bourguet and the French authorities jailed him for nine years in 2008, the UN made a public promise to help his victims. That promise was never kept...



Bourguet, a civilian, was part of a culture of UN personnel having sex with prostitutes - including children. More than a decade on, that culture persists.



There have been thousands of allegations against civilian peacekeepers and even more against military ones - the 'Blue Helmets'.



Yet the UN has recorded only 53 Blue Helmets who have been jailed for sexual offences. It is up to each troop-contributing country to convict its men, but there is institutional and national reluctance to prosecute those accused of sex crimes.



'The reality is there is no guarantee of criminal accountability for someone who commits rape inside a UN peacekeeping mission, despite a lot of effort by a lot of people and a strong commitment by the top reaches of the UN,' said Anthony Banbury, an academic and former UN assistant secretary-general..."