august 11, 2007
bbc: UN troops ‘helped smuggle gold’

The BBC has obtained an internal UN report examining allegations of gold smuggling by Pakistani peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
It concluded that Pakistani officers provided armed escorts, hospitality and food to gold smugglers in east Congo.
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The Pakistani battalion at the centre of the claims was based in and around the mining town of Mongbwalu, in the north-east of the country, in 2005.
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..witnesses claimed Pakistani officers also supplied weapons to notorious FNI militia commanders in return for gold.
As the trade developed, the officers allegedly brought in the Congolese army and then Indian traders from Kenya.

april 28, 2008
bbc: Congo spotlight on India and Pakistan

A BBC investigation into United Nations peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo has put the spotlight on Indian troops for the first time, and revived questions about Pakistani troops there.
Much of the report is based on confidential UN documents.
Concerns were first raised within the UN about Indian troop activities in eastern DR Congo in July, 2007.
After discussions between the UN and India, it was agreed that a UN investigation team would “determine whether the allegations are credible and require full investigation by India and the United Nations”.
That team identified five areas involving Indian troops in which a UN report says allegations have been “corroborated”:
* The illegal purchase of gold from rebels of the FDLR – the former Rwandan army that fled to Congo following their involvement in the Rwanda genocide of 1994
* The use of a UN helicopter to fly into the Virunga national park, to exchange ammunition for ivory with the rebels
* The exchanging with the rebels of UN rations for gold
* The buying of drugs from the rebels
* The failure to support the disarmament of this rebel group.
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The BBC first reported into allegations of corrupt practices by Pakistani peacekeepers in the DR Congo last year. These took place in a different area of eastern Congo to the activities of the Indian troops.
Now the BBC has found evidence that a UN enquiry into what took place in the gold mining town of Mongbwalu appears to have been blocked for political reasons.
Those close to this investigation told us that elements of the investigation were suppressed for fear of alienating Pakistan, which is the largest troop contributing country to the UN.

innercitypress: As UN Spins Reports of Peacekeepers’ Congolese Gold Deals, Who Audits the Auditor, OIOS?

UNITED NATIONS, April 28 — Faced with detailed reporting that it covered up charges of peacekeepers helping with gold trading and even rebel-rearming in the Eastern Congo, the UN on Monday released a three-and-a-half page letter from its peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Guehenno. The letter among other things acknowledges that Pakistani peacekeepers provided meals, transport and security to a group of Indian businessmen “engaged in illegal trading of unwrought gold,” and that this was conveyed in a “10 July 2007 Note Verbale” to Pakistan.
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..the UN produced for the press two senior officials, but insisted they not be named. “What’s the point, then?” one reporter asked. But the attitude of the two officials is symbolic of the UN’s approach. One official, having often said “zero tolerance,” admitted that all that happened to a Pakistani peacekeeper who drove gold traders around was to be sent back to Pakistan. Inner City Press asked for confirmation that while the UN has asked Pakistan to disclose if any punishment was imposed, Pakistan has not responded. The official agreed, and said that all the UN could do is to try to publicize the non-response. “So can we quote you on that?” Inner City Press asked. “I’ll think about it,” the official said. Eight hours later, the demand for anonymity remained in place.

others w/ more direct knowledge can elaborate, but from what i’ve read, u.n. peacekeepers and even u.n. officials/representatives are regular actors in informal economies across the planet. in her last two books, shadows of war: violence, power, and international profiteering in the twenty-first century (2004) and global outlaws: crime, money, and power in the contemporary world (2007), for instance, carolyn nordstrom touches on the role of bluehats in sarajevo, angola, mozambique, and other conflict zones in being on all sides of informal exchanges. peacekeepers not only provide alot willing customers for cigs, drugs, food, and the gamut, they also get involved in wheeling & dealing for themselves. truly an underground international mktplace. and she also mentions other stories encountered in her fieldwork of more vested u.n. involvement in trafficking commodities, running diamonds, “black marketeering”, etc.
and, on the truly illict front, kevin bales, in his book ending slavery: how we free today’s slaves, reminds us that peacekeepers are not unfamiliar w/

human trafficking and prostitution. In the late 1980s, U.N. troops deployed to Mozambique were caught in the commercial sexual exploitation of local women and girls. In the recent past, a rapid increase in prostitution was noted when U.N. troops arrived in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Cambodia. Some U.N. personnel were reported to be involved in recruiting young women for a brothel in Bosnia. More than 150 cases of sexual abuse of local women and girls by U.N. forces in the Congo were reported, most involving the purchase of sex with small amounts of food or money, and allegations were made of rape and the requirement of sex for jobs by civilian employees of the U.N. force. Some U.N. troops in Haiti were accused of sexually exploiting underage girls.
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In 2004, the U.N. began to clean up the force, a welcome step but much too late to save women and children from abuse in the Congo and other countries.

Posted by: b real | Apr 29 2008 4:31 utc | 101