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Afternoon Open Thread: UN DR Congo Deals, China-manufactured Tibetan flags? |
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The BBC Panorama program came out yesterday with news that UN peacekeepers in the DR Congo provided arms to militia groups and smuggled gold and ivory.
The 18-month investigation found that:
Pakistani peacekeepers in the eastern town of Mongbwalu were involved in the illegal trade in gold with the FNI militia, providing them with weapons to guard the perimeter of the mines
Indian peacekeepers operating around the town of Goma had direct dealings with the militia responsible for the Rwandan genocide, now living in eastern DR Congo.
The Indians traded gold, bought drugs from the militias and flew a UN helicopter into the Virunga National Park, where they exchanged ammunition for ivory
However, Alan Doss, Special Representative to the Secretary-General of the UN, defends the credibility of the UN:
Mr Doss acknowledged that some United Nations personnel had behaved inappropriately, but said this should not mean the countries that sent them were culpable.
“I think it would be very unfair to smear whole countries and their contingents for irresponsible behaviour and sometimes illegal behaviour, I have to say, by a group of individuals or a few individuals,” he said.
Keep an eye for the back and forth between the UN and the BBC.
In other news, a Chinese factory has been found to be producing Tibetan flags. They’ve been ordered to stop immediately, but some flags have already shipped.
Capital doesn’t seem to have any masters, does it?
That Tibetan flag story is rather hilarious. Large-scale manufacturing rocks.
That is absurd. The UN should be able to choose peacekeepers who are not corrupt. So should the UN be blamed as well as the “peacekeepers” for increasing corruption? As far as the Tibetan flags story, that is quite funny.