UN to probe sex abuse allegations against DR Congo staff
December 24, 2008
AFP
Original Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j-b-SyMAasnGGTazBj2QAAm_xyrQ

KINSHASA (AFP) — The United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) said Wednesday it has called for an immediate inquiry into allegations of sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers in the east of the country.
In a statement, MONUC said it had asked the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) to initiate a rapid and in-depth inquiry on allegations of bad conduct, including sexual exploitation and abuse by UN blue-helmeted soldiers in Nord-Kivu province.
MONUC added that it had received reports of the allegations from unnamed sources in the last few days, but at the moment they are incomplete and unconfirmed.
In May the UN mission said OIOS was investigating other allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by some of its workers in the east of the war-scarred country.
At the time local sources told AFP Indian MONUC peacekeepers in Masisi were accused of paying for sex with young Congolese girls near the force's camp between mid-2007 and early 2008. The OIOS opened its inquiry in March.
MONUC is the UN's largest peacekeeping operation in the world with some 19,000 personnel including 17,000 blue-helmeted troops.
Just over 7,000 peacekeepers are currently deployed in the restive Nord-Kivu, where government forces and allied militias have been battling rebel forces led by ethnic Tutsi ex-general Laurent Nkunda.
Since MONUC's first deployment in 2001, its civilian and military personnel have been involved in several sexual abuse and smuggling scandals.
The United Nations in 2005 stated a zero tolerance approach to its troops having sex with the Congolese. MONUC logged 140 cases of alleged sexual abuse or prostitution involving its personnel from December 2004 to August 2006.
In May 2008 Human Rights Watch accused the UN of covering up allegations of embezzlement against Pakistani and Indian MONUC troops implicated in alleged arms and gold smuggling in the country. The UN denied the charge.
In the past the UN has preferred to send its accused staff members home, where it is up to the native governments to initiate criminal proceedings or not.
In September a French court sentenced a former mechanic employed by the UN to nine years in prison for raping young girls when he was working in DR Congo and the Central African Republic between 1998 and 2004.