UN SENDS AUDIT TEAM TO DRC

C O N F I D E N T I A L KINSHASA 000845 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/18/2017 TAGS: KPKO CG SUBJECT: UN SENDS AUDIT TEAM TO DRC REF: KINSHASA 00712 Classified By: PolOff TNaber for reasons 1.4 b/d. ¶1. (U) United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon announced July 13 that a UN management audit team was being sent to Kinshasa to review allegations of serious misconduct against MONUC personnel. These allegations include the beatings and killings of detainees by Bangladeshi peacekeepers in 2005 (reftel),gold smuggling by Pakistani peacekeepers the same year, and sale of food and intelligence by Indian peacekeepers in 2006. UN Under-Secretary for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guehenno said the team will look at why these allegations surfaced and what can be done to strengthen the management of the mission to be more proactive on these issues. He said that the UN Office of Internal Oversight (OIOS) would investigate the allegations. -------------- Allegations against Indian Peacekeepers -------------- ¶2. (U) The most recent allegations involve Indian peacekeepers in Nyabiondo, North Kivu in 2005 and 2006. According to the French press agency AFP, the Indian North Kivu Brigade Commander based at Nyabiondo was sent back to India in 2006 after MONUC received reports peacekeepers under his command were trading their food rations for gold. The rations were later found for sale in the market of Nyabiondo. A July 13 Reuters article reported that Indian peacekeepers had allegedly exchanged military intelligence for gold with the FDLR, and then helped transport the gold across the border to buyers working for Indian dealers based in Kenya. ¶3. (U) MONUC Spokesman Kemal Saiki publicly confirmed these allegations July 13. He said that upon receiving reports of trafficking, UN procedures "kicked in," and OIOS launched an investigation. He noted that punishment for crimes committed by UN peacekeepers is left to their own countries. AFP reported that a top Indian army official in New Delhi said, "the military establishment is checking the veracity of the charges with the concerned authorities in the UN." -------------- Allegations against Pakistani Peacekeepers -------------- ¶4. (U) In early July, an OIOS report found Pakistani peacekeepers had colluded with a local armed group to smuggle gold out of the country from Ituri District in 2005. Guehenno told the BBC July 13 that "the investigation has found no evidence of gun smuggling, but it has identified an individual who seems to have facilitated gold smuggling. We have shared the report with the concerned troop contributor, and I'm confident they will take the required action." A British newspaper reported that one Pakistani officer was reportedly removed from the MONUC peacekeeping force in the DRC and sent back to Pakistan in June. -------------- An OIOS Perspective -------------- ¶5. (C) An OIOS investigator in Kinshasa told us July 18 the recently reported cases are not new. He said there was a backlog of nearly 350 cases when he arrived in Kinshasa in April. The OIOS team has since closed out nearly 260 of these, leaving only 90 active investigations. However, each time the findings of an investigation are released, he said, there is a leak to the press, as if the violation were new. The OIOS investigator added that both the Pakistani and Indian allegations are more than two years old. ¶6. (SBU) Comment: The steady trickle of allegations against peacekeepers risks causing damage to MONUC, despite the staleness of the reports. Guehenno's decision to send a management audit team may help limit such damage. End comment. MEECE