April 29, 2008	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 22, 1429

UNITED NATIONS, April 28: A United Nations spokesperson on Monday rejected allegations contained in a BBC radio report which accused Indian troops of wrongdoings and mismanagement and revived questions about Pakistani troops’ conduct.

UN spokesperson Marie Okabe said at a briefing on Monday: “The United Nations takes these issues very seriously.”

According to her, UN considered the report “misleading. It neglects to mention a number of important factors”.

She said that the BBC report was based on allegations which were two to three years old and which had been investigated by Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS).

“Much of the ‘new information’ presented in the report is either hearsay or comes from sources such as militia leaders whose integrity and motivation are highly questionable,” she said, adding that they had themselves been arrested and put in prison by MONUC peacekeepers.

The report, she said, directly implied that senior UN officials were involved in a cover up, which was untrue.

She said that the UN headquarters was following up with the member states in question regarding disciplinary action they had taken on the basis of OIOS investigations.

The report, she said, also implied that UN investigations into the allegations against peacekeepers had been intentionally withheld from member states. “This is not true.”

The OIOS investigations found no evidence of systemic wrongdoing or arms trafficking, she said. According to her, allegations of gold trafficking concerned three individuals. “One has to be careful not to smear whole countries … contingents of the UN as a whole on the basis of individuals’ action.”