The BBC has received confidential internal United Nations reports documenting illegal activities by Indian troops on peacekeeping duties in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A memo from the Acting Director of the UN's Investigation Division, Vladislav Guerassev, dated 20 February 2008, says that reports about the conduct of the Indian battalion based in eastern Congo, known as INDBATT, first surfaced in July 2007.

In August that year the investigation division asked the India Mission at the UN to appoint a senior military officer to lead a joint investigation into what had taken place. Indian appointed Lieutenant General Rajvinder Singh. However, before it could get under way a UN team was asked to visit India "...to discuss and finalise terms of reference for the joint investigation..."

Exactly what took place is not clear, but the outcome was an agreement that the UN Investigation Division would undertake "field-based investigations to determine whether the allegations are credible and require full investigation by India and the United Nations." Those visits to Congo have taken place and the report seen by the BBC.

The allegations,which the UN report describes as having been "corroborated" involve:

• Illegally purchasing gold from rebels of the FDLR . the former Rwandan army that fled to Congo following their involvement in the Rwanda genocide of 1994
• Using a UN helicopter to fly into the Virunga national park, to exchange ammunition for ivory with the rebels
• Exchanging UN rations for gold with the rebels
• Purchasing drugs from the rebels
• Failing to support the disarmament of this rebel group

The UN report, dated February 2008, contains no fewer than 44 allegations in all, although the majority were not corroborated. But now it appears that the investigation into these alleged abuses will not be pursued by the UN.

The memo ends with an assessment that there is sufficient evidence to take action against three named Indian peacekeepers regarding attempts to trade in gold (some of which turned out to be counterfeit) and unlawfully detaining one of the traders. It says that there is insufficient evidence to act against INDBATT members over the other allegations. The memo from Guerasseve concludes that because the allegations "...may have the potential to damage the reputation of the Indian military and the United Nations," the Indian authorities "...may wish to consider other avenues of inquiry, which fall outside the purviews of the (UN's Investigation Division) investigations."

It is not clear why this decision has been taken, but the report does talk of the difficulty and remoteness of the terrain in the area of eastern Congo and the problems the investigators encountered.

Pak involved too

This is not the first time that questions have been asked of the activities of UN peacekeepers in Congo.

In 2007 the BBC broadcast allegations that the Pakistani battalion had illegally traded in gold, as well as providing weapons to some of Congo's most notorious militia, the FNI.

The reaction of the Pakistani authorities then was one of denial. In May 2007 Major-General Waheed Arshad, Director-General Inter-Services Public Relations described the BBC's reports as "not only malicious but misleading and distorted. Aspersions have been cast on us without evidence," he said.

An 18-month investigation by the BBC has found evidence that a UN enquiry into what took place in the gold mining town of Mongbwalu, in eastern Congo, was 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.

The UN's own report dated July 2, 2007, which it never published, concludes the Pakistani contingent in Mongbwalu did trade in gold with a group of Indian traders based in Kenya.The report finds that "...peacekeepers deployed to Mongbwalu provided transport, meals and security for the (Indian traders) during their visits to Mongbwalu in November and December 2005. During these visits, (the traders) purchased significant quantities of unwrought gold without the appropriate government authorizations."

The UN holds to account just one Pakistani army officer. But on the question of re-arming the FNI militia the UN report was unequivocal. It stated that in the absence of corroborative evidence the UN's Investigation Division could not substantiate the allegation that Pakistani peacekeepers deployed to Mongbwalu had supplied weapons or ammunition to officers of the FNI.

Fresh evidence

Travelling back to Eastern Congo the BBC has found evidence the UN says that it was unable to discover.

BBC interviewed several residents of the town,who said they had seen FNI militia who were disarmed one day, in the town the next day with the same weapons. We spoke to a man whose family members died fighting for the FNI. "The FNI commanders -Dragon Masasi and Kung Fu Nyinga-took a vehicle to meet and negotiate with one of the Pakistani officers," he said.

"They went and came back with seven boxes of ammunition. After receiving these boxes, all the militia .including my young brothers .took their arms to go and attack the Congolese army."

We also went into the maximum security prison in the capital, Kinshasa, to interview two FNI leaders, known as Kung Fu and Dragon. Kung Fu-real name General Mateso Ninga-was clear about what had taken place. "They did give us arms. They said it was for the security of the country. So they said to us that we would help them take care of the zone."

Unofficially some UN officials told me they are now convinced that the trade in gold and the rearming of the FNI militia did take place. And one Pakistani officer is reported to have been disciplined.

The UN's Department of Peacekeeping Operations says it has been sending Pakistan "notes verbal" since last year in an attempt to discover what disciplinary measures these were, but has received no reply.

Impact on Congolese

The implications of what took place are clear-says Anneke van Woudenberg, senior researcher on Congo with Human Rights Watch.

"The FNI have been responsible for atrocities including sexual violence, the killing of thousands of people on an ethnic basis in north-eastern Congo. Any interaction that supports them, arms them or provides them with business opportunities, undermines the peace."

The question is why the response from the Pakistani military has been so defensive.While no army likes its troops to be criticised, it is hard to explain the denials.

The UN acknowledges that the Pakistani soldiers are some of the best troops available for peacekeeping operations-tough and dependable-Everyone we spoke to acknowledged that they have played a critical role in helping restore a measure of peace to Congo.

Commentators point out that the difficulty for the UN is that it has no troops of its own. All its forces belong to troop contributing countries, who continue to insist on the right to discipline their own.

Until this problem is overcome there seems little prospect of further allegations of wrongdoing by blue-helmeted troops, allegations the UN is not in a position to tackle adequately.

The article has been written by Martin Plaut and the full broadcast can be heard on the BBC World Service

Source : DNA