Clouds of scandal are threatening the United Nations once again after allegations that peacekeepers in Congo traded guns for gold with militia groups they were meant to be disarming and a trial got under way in New York of a former senior procurement official accused of taking bribes.
The UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo said that an investigation into the guns-for-gold claims had begun last year and was still ongoing. In 2005 Pakistani soldiers sent by the UN to restore peace in the Ituri province around the mining town of Mongbwalu allegedly began returning guns to militia groups and received gold in exchange. Witnesses confirmed the trade to the BBC. Human Rights Watch said it had its own information which it had given to the UN.
This week saw the start of the fraud trial in New York of Sanjaya Bahel, accused of taking bribes from a Florida businessman while he was head of the UN's commodity procurement section from 1999 to 2003.
Jurors have heard testimony from Nishan Kohli, the son of businessman Nanak Kohli, that Bahel helped secure US$100 million ($137 million) in contracts from him in return for favours including a heavily discounted luxury apartment. Other UN workers associated with Bahel had been treated to nights in a hotel room with prostitutes.
Recent years have seen the probe into corruption in the UN's Saddam-era oil-for-food programme in Iraq, the resignation of Ruud Lubbers as head of the High Commissioner for Refugees following claims of sexual harassment as well as peacekeepers trading food for sexual favours in the Congo.
- INDEPENDENT
