The UN is investigating accusations that Uruguayan soldiers serving with the world body's peacekeeping force in Haiti sexually assaulted an 18-year-old man after alleged footage of the incident was circulated in the country on mobile phones."We're aware of this alleged incident. As soon as it was brought to our attention we immediately launched an internal investigation," Eliana Nabaa, spokeswoman for the UN's Haiti peacekeeping mission, MINUSTAH, said on Friday.
"We have a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual exploitation and abuse and we take it extremely seriously. If the allegations are proved, the soldiers must be brought to justice," she said.
A Haitian magistrate told the AFP news agency on Friday that he had turned the case over to prosecutors after viewing the evidence and after the alleged victim and his parents gave depositions in a courthouse in Port Salut, the southern seaside town where the alleged sex attack is said to have occurred.
He said he was also investigating allegations of sexual relations between Uruguayan peacekeepers and young Haitian females who had become pregnant.
Uruguay's defence ministry earlier this week ordered an "urgent investigation" into allegations that its troops had committed "aberrant acts" against a Haitian.
Uruguay contributes 1,110 soldiers and coppers to the UN's more than 12,000-strong peacekeeping force in Haiti, according to UN figures released in July.
The one-minute video, which has circulated on dozens of mobile phones in Port Salut, pans out from a sideways close-up of the alleged victim's strained face to reveal his body being held down on a mattress by light-skinned men wearing camouflage-coloured clothes.
Some of them are seen wearing sky-blue caps in the style of those worn by UN peacekeeping forces. As the men's laughter grows in volume, a shirtless soldier kneels behind the man, slaps him and appears to thrust towards him.
The video ends as the bedraggled young man is grabbed by the arm and pulled onto his feet.
Nabaa said the UN inquiry had not yet proven the video's authenticity, but that "the results of the investigation will determine the facts".