DR Congo 'peacekeepers' plundering resources and arming thugs

A year and a half long BBC investigation uncovered serious corruption in the world's largest peacekeeping mission. It revealed that Indian and Pakistani peacekeepers in MONUC, the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, armed militias and smuggled gold and ivory.

Furthermore, the BBC reported on a coverup within the international body.

The UN investigated some of the claims in 2007, but said it could not substantiate claims of arms dealing. UN insiders told the BBC's Panorama they had been prevented from pursuing their inquiries for political reasons, it reported.

Pakistan and India are two of the three largest contributors of manpower to UN peacekeeping, providing between them over 22 percent of the international body's peacekeepers.

The allegations come a few years after an earlier scandal where MONUC soldiers were accused of rampant sexual violence in the country.

The rationale for arming militias was that MONUC troops basically co-opted them to help ensure security in areas where they (the militias) were powerful. This isn't really much different than the US strategy in Occupied Iraq and will probably lead to similarly disastrous consequences.

No word on what was the justification for naked plundering.

It's hard enough being an American who's an unabashed internationalist and believes in the concept of the UN and the international community, without having crap like this happen. The allegations are bad enough. The shameful coverup, however typical it may be of large bureaucracies, only further degrades the global body's reputation.

Things are bad enough in this cursed country without the 'helpers' making things worse.

Update: It's ironic that this foreign corruption scandal erupted at a time when the Congolese themselves are reportedly trying hard to change the country's culture of graft.

Somalia's 'grim future'

I've pointed out before how badly the situation in Somalia has deteriorated since the US-backed Ethiopian 'liberation'. Presently 20,000 people are fleeing the capital Mogadishu every week while 2,000,000 people in the country are dependent on daily food aid.

And yet, aid agencies warn that the humanitarian catastrophe risks getting much worse.

"There are no signs of improvement on the ground, and those who are suffering the brunt of the conflict are the civilians, who are being either killed or displaced, and are in the middle of suffering that is unacceptable," said a spokesman for the UN refugee agency.

"In terms of child malnutrition, access to education, lack of access to clean water and sanitation facilities, indeed the situation in Somalia is the worst in the world... to be a child in Somalia today is something that means lots of suffering and a grim future," he continued.

The warning comes ahead of a UN Security Council meeting to consider sending 27,000 peacekeepers to Somalia to replace the stretched African force.

More media scrutiny of development aid

A column in The Christian Science Monitor calls for more critical reporting of the international aid business.

While there is plenty of reporting on corruption by governments themselves, the author claims that aid organizations themselves regularly cover up managerial dysfunction, including sexual harassment, by ignoring the actions of those responsible. This includes a UN agency director in Geneva lying about his age to stay in power longer, the misappropriation of US funds by private contractors in the Middle East, and the placement of inappropriate personnel in well-paid UN positions by in-house "mafiosi" to the detriment of more qualified individuals.

There are also turf wars among agencies supposedly designed to help the people.

Numerous projects, too, are poorly coordinated as a result of interagency UN rivalries or inappropriate expertise among contracted consultancy firms, and sometimes such initiatives are implemented for the wrong reasons.

But NGOs can be hesitant to criticize the strings that come with aid money, no matter how nonsensical they may be.

NGOs, which rely heavily on donor funding, can cite innumerable examples of aid that makes little sense, they are cautious about criticizing their benefactors. One aid administrator in London pointed out that even when known to be part of a questionable political agenda, "it's still your bottom line."

Some UN member states have presented a plan to revamp the international aid structure but the columnist concludes that Many member states, however, have too much to lose from a truly open UN.

Demobilization in Ituri

The UN's IRIN news service reports on some welcome news from Ituri. The international body has launched a program to demobilize some 4500 in the northeastern province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The programme is being implemented by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), with the DRC government, MONUC and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Ex-fighters participating in the programme include former members of the Front Nationaliste et Intégrationniste, led Peter Karim; the Forces de Résistance Patriotique en Ituri of Cobra Matata; and the Mouvement Révolutionnaire Congolais, headed by Mathieu Ngudjolo.

The three groups had remained active, fighting each other and attacking civilians, despite peace agreements culminating in presidential and parliamentary elections in DRC in 2006.

The UNDP believes that about 30 percent of the soldiers will join the newly reconstituted national army while the rest will rejoin civilian life.

Interestingly, the demobilised will this time participate in community development activities, such as the repair of roads, bridges, schools and water-supply facilities and receive a $2 daily wage.