Rights group: UN investigators in Congo ignored misconduct

By HEIDI VOGT Associated Press Writer

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) - Internal U.N. documents show investigators "ignored, minimized or shelved" numerous charges of gold smuggling and arms trading by its peacekeepers in Congo, an international rights organization said Friday.

Allegations of such misconduct by peacekeepers in the war-ravaged Central African country first surfaced more than a year ago.

The United Nations launched investigations and has since said it found no evidence of arms transfers. It did establish that some Pakistani troops serving as U.N. peacekeepers had provided support and security to foreign businessmen involved in gold smuggling and that some Indian military personnel bought counterfeit gold.

But New York-based Human Rights Watch charged that U.N. investigators found substantial evidence of more widespread involvement and that peacekeepers gave weapons to militias.

The rights group released a series of internal documents Friday that detail the United Nations' investigations into charges of misconduct by peacekeepers from Pakistan and India.

Witness accounts recorded in the documents describe the rearming of militias by U.N. peacekeepers and refer to a large network of Pakistani peacekeepers involved in gold trading.

The U.N.'s internal watchdog, the Office of Internal Oversight Services, "did not follow up on this information, nor was it included in their final report," the group said in a statement. Human Rights Watch also said OIOS apparently never followed up on recommendations from U.N. investigators for further review.

U.N. associate spokesman Farhan Haq said Friday that the U.N. is taking the allegations "very seriously" but did not elaborate further.

U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said earlier this week that media reports alleging arms deals were based accounts that were secondhand or given by sources such as militia leaders who were not credible.

In a letter, Human Rights Watch called on U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to take urgent measures to re-examine the investigations and hold those guilty of misconduct to account.

Haq said Ban is traveling "but the letter will be studied."

The 18,000-member force in Congo is the U.N.'s largest peacekeeping operation. While hard-hit by sexual abuse and corruption scandals, it is credited with helping to organize and police Congo's first free elections in decades in 2006. The force has also lost scores of men in clashes with militias.