Human Rights Watch flays UN report acquitting Pak peacekeepers

UNITED NATIONS: The Human Rights Watch has slammed a United Nations report that exonerates Pakistani peacekeepers in Congo from charges of trading arms for gold.

In a letter to Under-secretary General for Peacekeeping operations Jean-Marine Guehenno yesterday, it took objection to the world body's statement that the matter is now closed saying the allegations are "surely only the beginning."

After allegations that certain Pakistani peacekeepers had sold arms for gold to a group in Congo that they were expected to disarm, the UN launched an investigation into the matter.

The world body later officially concluded there was no arms smuggling but one peacekeeper was found guilty of smuggling gold in collaboration with a businessman of Indian origin.

Also on Monday, 'The Washington post' published a confidential UN report which said Pakistani peacekeepers "aided and abetted" a network of Kenyan businessmen smuggling gold from mine in Eastern Congo, providing them with food, housing, transportation and security.

The United Nations has urged the Pakistani government to conduct an investigation into possible wrongdoing by the units' commander, Maj Mohammed Javed, the Post reported.
   
The report -- issued by the United Nations' Office of Internal Oversight -- concluded the Pakistanis "indirectly contributed" to the illegal exploitation of gold by Congolese government troops and a militia accused of war crimes, the Post said.

However, it found no evidence to support allegations that Pakistani peacekeepers in the town of Mongbwalu supplied arms to the militia, known as the Nationalist and Integrationist Front, a finding the human rights organizations dispute.

UN investigators are also reviewing charges that Indian peacekeepers in eastern Congo traded food rations and intelligence to Rwandan Hutu rebels for gold, it reported quoting a senior UN official in New York. But no official comment was available.

Calling for accountability, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch Kenneth Roth said the report confirming illegal acts of peacekeepers is not an end of a process but "surely only the beginning." The UN, he stressed, should follow through on the results of its investigation.

But the Pakistanis, against whom the allegations made by the Human Rights Watch and BBC, have already been rotated out of Congo and only Pakistan can take action against them.

The UN can only send the suspects back to their country. Actions against wrong-doers can be initiated only by the respective countries in accordance with an agreement reached between the troop contributors and the world body.

In the letter, Human Rights Watch raised questions about the conclusions of the report, which said only one peacekeeper had been involved in illegal gold smuggling. The report failed to include new information about alleged arms trading, it added.
   
Human Rights Watch first brought the matter into the notice of United Nations in December 2005. During its broadcast on May 23, 2007, the BBC quoted a UN official as saying that there was a desire to "bury the result" for political reasons.

At the United Nations, diplomats said the UN has to move carefully as it cannot annoy countries which supply troops and is already finding it difficult to get trained personnel in view of fast increasing operations.

The conclusion of the UN investigation was announced on July 13, 2007, but the results were not made public. The report was given to Pakistan, which has previously denied wrongdoing by its peacekeepers. In an interview with the BBC, Guehenno declared the matter to be "closed."

Noting Pakistan as a major troop-contributing country with 10,000 personnels, the Human Rights Watch said while the UN is understandably appreciative of that contribution, the need for such troop contributions should not mean that the United Nations is silenced when abuses like this occur.

"Pakistan must be called upon to fulfill its obligations," it added.

The United Nations have 17,000 peacekeepers in the Congo which are responsible for disarming of Congolese militias especially in mineral rich Eastern part of the country.