News: UN troops smuggled gold, ivory and 'armed Congo rebels'

An 18-month BBC investigation for Panorama has found evidence that:

- Pakistani peacekeepers in the eastern town of Mongbwalu were involved in the illegal trade in gold with the FNI militia (described by Human Rights Watch as "some of the most murderous individuals that operate in eastern Congo"), providing them with weapons to guard the perimeter of the mines.
- The Indians traded gold, bought drugs from the militias and flew a UN helicopter into the Virunga National Park, where they exchanged ammunition for ivory.

A UN investigation concluded that one officer had been responsible for dealing in gold - allowing traders to use UN aircraft to fly into the town, putting them up at the UN base and taking them around the town. But the UN decided that "in the absence of corroborative evidence" its investigators "could not substantiate the allegation" that Pakistani peacekeepers supplied weapons or ammunition to the militia.

It did, however, identify "an individual who seemed to have facilitated gold smuggling".

The BBC allegations were confirmed by militia leaders. UN insiders close to the investigation told the BBC they had been prevented from pursuing their inquiries for political reasons. (Full)

My comments:
This is despicable and a slap in the face of those UN humanitarians who do try to make a difference.
It is not the first time the UN peacekeeping (UNDPKO) troops have been discredited by scandals (see the post Sometimes I am ashamed to work for the UN). A lack of consequent leadership in UNDPKO, a lack of accountability, direct and clear lines of command, proper supervision, proper screening of the troops, justice for those offending the rules, transparent and public auditing... and above all a lack of political will to structurally make a change to avoid similar scandals from happening again and again.

Update May 2: Human Rights Watch claims UN investigators in Congo ignored misconduct (Full)

Via International Aid Workers Today

Picture courtesy Marco Longari (AFP), BBC

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News: DRC UN Staff on Strike

E. points out that while yesterday we were discussing whether or not we, aid workers, are not paid too much, at the same time local staff working for the UN Peace Keeping forces in DRC (MONUC) went on strike.

They claim lacking of promotions and raises in wages since MONUC started in 1999, and the discrepancy between wages for equally qualified local and international staff.

Even though this incident involved UN Peace Keeping Operations (UNDPKO), which are seperate and very different from UN humanitarian operations, it shows the relativity of the issue: while some of us work in comfortable headquarters, feeling we might be paid too much, others working in the field might not paid sufficiently for the work they do...(Full news-item here)

Picture courtesy Myriam Asmani-MONUC

. For updated humanitarian news, check out The Other World News

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