sentences:  Handling of the UNHCR/SC-UK 2002 report on sexual exploitation in the aid sector in West Africa
  
  Three years prior to the controversy over the sexual harassment case, Ruud Lubbers was criticised for his mis-handling of the UNHCR/SC-UK 2002 which uncovered the widespread sexual exploitation of refugee children by aid workers and peacekeepers in three West African countries (Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone).The study team which had encountered these findings unexpectedly whilst conducting a broader assessment documented 67 allegations implicating 40 aid agencies and several peacekeeping battalions, and often involving humanitarian workers and peacekeepers exchanging meagre aid supplies (biscuits, soap, plastic sheeting) for sex with children.Ruud Lubbers' response was to deny these findings, discredit the authors and excuse these behaviours; for example in a CNN interview on 8 May 2002, Lubbers was heard to deny the problem in the face of CNN's own research which confirmed the problem existed and was taken to task by the interviewer for dismissing these exploitative relationships "inter alia" as 'romances'.