UN to probe sexual abuse
2004-05-11 20:16
Nairobi - The United Nations is setting up a team to investigate reports that UN personnel sexually abused civilians, including minors, in a volatile northeastern Congolese town, UN officials said on Tuesday.
There are several thousand UN troops in Bunia to stem fighting between rival tribal factions and "some elements" of the force are alleged to have sexually abused Congolese citizens, said Leocadia Salmeron, a spokesperson for the UN mission in Congo.
"We will take necessary action to contain the situation because it is very important for the UN to make it clear that this kind of behaviour is not acceptable," Salmeron said.
Bunia is the capital of Ituri province where some 4 700-strong UN troops are deployed, as well as about 40 unarmed military observers and 60 civilian UN workers.
The bulk of the force is stationed in Bunia, where more than 500 people were killed in fighting between factions of the rival Hema and Lendu tribes last May and June.
Salmeron had no details about how the United Nations learned of the alleged sexual abuses in Ituri.
Hamadoun Toure, another UN spokesperson, said the probe was triggered by the discovery that: "something apparently was wrong."
The UN spokesperson had no information on the composition of the investigative team, when it will start its probe or the number of alleged abuses in the town.
Civil war broke out in Congo in August 1998 and UN troops have been deployed in Africa's third largest country since 1999. The conflict ended when Congolese rebels and the government set up a transitional administration last June, but violence has continued in eastern and northeastern Congo.
Fighting between Hema and Lendu tribal fighters in Ituri has killed 50 000 people and forced more than 500 000 to flee their homes since 1999.
On Monday, tribal fighters, suspected to be members of a Hema faction, battled 15 Moroccan UN troops patrolling the central market in Bunia. One peacekeeper was wounded in the one hour gunbattle, Salmeron said.
Representatives of the tribal militias are currently meeting Congolese government officials in Kinshasa to discuss plans to disarm and demobilise the armed groups and allow some fighters to join the new national army.
- AP