United Nations Secretary General Koffi Annan admitted on Friday there is clear evidence that civilian staff and a small number of troops in its peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) committed sexual abuse, saying he is outraged by the incidents.
Annan said in a statement released in Nairobi that he has received a ”detailed briefing … about the investigations which the UN initiated some time ago into allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by both civilian and military peacekeeping personnel in the DRC”.
”I am afraid there is clear evidence that acts of gross misconduct have taken place. This is a shameful thing for the UN to have to say, and I am absolutely outraged by it,” Annan said in the statement.
The confession came as UN employees in New York were readying to make a historic vote of no confidence in Annan, sources said.
The UN staff union, in what officials said is the first vote of its kind in the more than 50-year history of the UN, was set to approve a resolution withdrawing its support for the embattled Annan and UN management.
Annan has been in the line of fire over a high-profile series of scandals including controversy about a UN aid programme that investigators say allowed deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to embezzle billions of dollars.
On the DRC abuse claims, Annan said: ”Many of these allegations came to light last spring, and have since been looked into both by Monuc [the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC] itself and by the Office of Internal Oversight Services. I am glad to say that the allegations concern only a small number of UN personnel,” Annan added.
”But it is vital that the investigations be speeded up. We cannot rest until we have rooted out all such practices from Monuc, from any other peacekeeping operation, and indeed anywhere in the organisation that they might occur,” he said.
”And we must make sure that those involved are held fully accountable,” he added.
The UN mission in the DRC now consists of about 10 000 troops and was first deployed in 2001, two years before a major war there actually ended.
Annan did not specify where the abuses had taken place, but reports of misconduct by UN personnel have previously mentioned the north-eastern town of Bunia. — Sapa-AFP