UN sex abuse probe teams arrive in the Congo

The UN has sent two teams to investigate 150 allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by civilian and military personnel serving in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a senior UN official in New York City told reporters on Monday.

The official, Jane Holl Lute, said the allegations included criminal activity, paedophilia, rape and solicitation of prostitution.

Lute, who is an assistant secretary-general in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, also said the division would deploy a special investigative team to table various strategies to deal with such cases at peacekeeping missions.

"We recognise that sexual exploitation and abuse is a problem in some missions and we're working for a systematic and coordinated approach to strengthen the measures we have in place," UN News quoted her as saying.

UN News said the UN Mission in the DRC, known as MONUC, was comprised of nearly 1,000 international civilian staff and 11,000 uniformed military and police personnel.

Lute said a number of allegations of sexual abuse were specific to Bunia, the largest town in the troubled northeastern district of Ituri. She said the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services would soon issue a report on its investigations into these cases.

Meanwhile, she said, rapid response investigative teams made up of military, law enforcement and civilian specialists would deal with the other allegations throughout the mission.

In addition, she said further, the Department of Management, the Office of Human Resources Management and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations had organised a team, which arrived in the Congo on Monday, to investigate cases of sexual abuse involving civilians.

"If those investigations confirmed the basis of the allegations, additional procedures would be taken, consistent with staff rules and instructions," UN news reported.
[Full UN news story on Lute's briefing on: www.un.org]