UN Congo probes Indian officer

The scandal-hit United Nations mission in Democratic Republic of Congo is investigating an Indian peacekeeping officer accused of showing support for eastern Tutsi rebels, a UN spokesman said on Thursday. The allegations stem from recordings of a bush ceremony in which an Indian UN commander hailed the rebels as ‘brothers’ and presented their leader General Laurent Nkunda with his regimental crest, according to a transcript of the event. Nkunda’s rebels, also led by Jean Bosco Ntaganda, who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, have continued to clash with Congo’s weak government despite a peace deal this year that followed 2006 elections intended to pacify the vast mineral-rich former Belgian colony. The world’s largest UN peacekeeping mission in Congo often finds itself stuck in the middle – fighting rebels and militias but also at times accused by the government of not doing enough. It has also been dogged by allegations of sexual abuse and illegal gold and arms trading by some of its members. ‘We have launched an investigation,’ mission spokesman Kemal Saiki said in response to the allegations against the Indian officer. ‘If confirmed ... this would be personal conduct unbecoming a peacekeeper and is a dereliction of duty.’ Saiki refused to name the officer but the transcript seen by Reuters and other UN sources identified him as Colonel Chand Saroha, the former commander at Sake, a strategic town in the eastern province of North Kivu. ‘We are like brothers,’ Saroha told Nkunda, Bosco and their fighters at the ceremony in April marking his departure from the zone, according to the transcript. ‘Officially we are not allowed to meet you. But your good conduct, your good discipline ... made us feel we were associated with proud people,’ Saroha added. Amid chants from his soldiers, according to the transcript, Nkunda thanked Saroha, saying: ‘You have helped us a great deal.’ There was no immediate reaction from Congolese president Joseph Kabila’s government, which has vowed to bring peace to the country’s turbulent east.