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 yesterday, 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.