DRC: UN investigations into allegations of sexual offences by peacekeepers

January 26, 2006 -(IRIN) In February 2005, the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, MONUC, created an office to address allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by some of MONUC's civilian and military personnel. It was the first such UN office to have been set-up as part of a peacekeeping mission. The office undertook scores of investigations but closed in November 2005 when investigations were taken over by the UN's Office for Internal Oversight in New York. The person who created and ran the office was Nicole Dahrendorf, a specialist in law and human rights. Dahrendorf is still with MONUC as an advisor. IRIN recently interviewed her. Here are some extracts:

QUESTION: What exactly did your office do while it lasted?

ANSWER: We recruited international investigators specially trained in investigating these crimes. We also started developing UN policies, which are still pretty embryonic. Things like: What do we do when a mother comes to the UN with a three-month old baby that doesn't look very Congolese? The third aspect we dealt with was training and advocacy for troops and civil staff. Preparing them for the socioeconomic situation they are coming into and making them aware of their responsibilities; explaining to them [the UN Secretary-General's policy on sexual exploitation of] zero tolerance.

Q: So why did the office close?

A: Two things happened: The UN General Assembly passed resolution 59/287 which decided that DPKO [the Department of Peacekeeping Operations] could not be both judge and jury. Instead, the resolution said that the Office of Internal Oversight [OIOS] should be the primary office to investigate misconduct. All investigations have now been passed on to that body [based in New York] and we don’t do them here anymore. The second thing that happened is that DPKO decided MONUC should be the guinea pig for what have been called "conduct and discipline teams"…

Q: Is the new arrangement better or worse?

A: The conduct and discipline teams deal with all issues, not just sexual exploitation. So it could be good in that other discipline issues are better addressed, like bad driving and harassment in the workplace. But it could be a bad thing in that sexual exploitation issues have been watered down. You see with my office, when we had an investigation going on, I would immediately inform the SRSG [the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in DRC] and the [MONUC] force commander. I had direct access to them and the results of investigations sent quite a strong message [within MONUC]. The new procedures that govern relations between OIOS and DPKO have not been completely worked out. What happens with OIOS now is that it reports to General Assembly. We are partly going back to the old ways and there is a big question mark over how well it will work.

Q: Why has there been so much sexual exploitation by UN peacekeepers?

A: Peacekeeping acts as a magnet for prostitution. Peacekeepers come in with cars and $100 bills. In some areas here [in Kinshasa], a steak that once cost $2 has gone up to $20. You get expensive bars and restaurants with the same prices as in New York. It's extraordinary how much money is bandied about here by UN personnel and how poor the local population is. For a local woman, $20 pays rent for a month. And $20 is the going rate that peacekeepers pay prostitutes, although the amount paid in high-class hotels is more like $80. That pays for rent plus a child's education…In that way, peacekeeping missions create artificial economies that are conducive for sexual exploitation.

Q: But why is it particularly bad in the Congo?

A: There is a cultural aspect that should not be ignored. Prostitution in the DRC is illegal but tolerated. Also, 14 is the age of consent in the DRC, whereas under international law the age is 18. Many of the cases we have investigated include child prostitution. Also the majority of cases are of unprotected sex, in a society with a high incidence of HIV…

…About 25 percent of all the allegations we received in our office concerned paternity claims. In Kisangani [northern DRC], there were rumours of hundreds of children fathered by peacekeeping personnel, but we could only find evidence of a few. There were similar rumours in Goma [eastern DRC] as well other parts of Congo, and they were only the tip of the iceberg. We could not investigate them all. We don't have the capacity. You have to sift through the rumours for the facts, and only a handful of babies are so far known to have been fathered by UN peacekeepers. The point is that it is hard to prove. We can only use circumstantial evidence. We can't use DNA testing because there are enormous human rights and legal issues: Who should do the tests? How do we obtain consent? Who then owns the data? This is another policy issue still being developed in the UN.

Q: The UN also can't punish UN peacekeepers; they can only be punished by courts in their own countries. Does that system need to change?

A: No, I think punishment should be the responsibility of troop-contributing countries. The UN can only make administrative investigations, not criminal investigations. The only punishment the UN can mete out is to repatriate a peacekeeper, though the UN can also recommend how the member state should proceed. What might need to be done is to harmonise the different approaches. If one country executes a soldier for committing rape, while another country only reprimands him, then that is an issue to be looked at. But we have a long way to go on that front. A report by Prince Zeid [Raad al-Husein, Jordan's Permanent Representative to the UN] does make some important recommendations on developing systems of accountability and standards, as well as on training peacekeepers before they are sent out.

Q: It seems that the problem is pretty intractable?

A: I don't think it is intractable. Policies and procedures are still being developed and we have some way to go regarding how we treat victims and maternity claims. But I think we have come a long way. I recall a decade ago [UN Under-Secretary General Yasushi] Akashi's infamous comment that "boys will be boys" [regarding allegations of sexual misconduct by Bulgarian peacekeepers in Cambodia]. Since then, we have seen cases of UN peacekeeper police trafficking [sex workers] in the Balkans, sexual abuse cases in Sierra Leone, and even seedy stuff here with paedophilia. The issue is now higher on the radar screen of the UN and NGOs and across the board. The [October 2003] UN code of conduct lays out rules of behaviour for UN personal and for anyone associated with the UN, and the Secretary-General has stated clearly his policy of zero tolerance regarding all forms of sexual exploitation. I think these polices have been reasonably effective.

Q: Do you see this as a moral issue?

A: We have tried to keep away from the moralistic stuff. Issues of prostitution are more complicated than the moralisers like to believe. We have developed procedures and mechanisms of accountability that all UN personnel must simply adhere to. Many of them are not attuned to the fragility of the societies in which they are working. They need to be made aware of the widespread exploitation that has occurred in the DRC with 12 years of the fighting, but that they must [also] meet a higher standard. They can't just say, "It's all alright; this is Africa."

From: http://irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51347&SelectRegion=East_Africa,%20Great_Lakes