KINSHASA, May 23: The UN said on Wednesday it was investigating claims that its peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo traded gold and weapons with militia groups they were supposed to be disarming.The statement from the UN mission in the DRC, known as MONUC, followed a BBC probe broadcast on Wednesday that said a team sent to probe the claims involving Pakistani UN peacekeepers faced intimidation.

The broadcast said the UN buried its report to “avoid political fallout.” The UN said an investigation began in 2006 and has yet to be completed.

The Pakistani team at the centre of the claims was working in and around the town of Mongbwalu two years ago to help restore peace between various groups.

Petronille Vaweka, a local official, said that she had tried to inspect cargo on a plane at Bunia airport but found her way blocked by Congolese armymen, who the BBC says were also involved.

“I knew they had gold because the price of gold increased when the Indians went to Mongwalu,” she told the BBC’s World Service programme Assignment.

“When we wanted to verify what was inside the plane the pilot refused to allow us to enter the plane…It was a big scandal.”

The BBC report, which said Pakistanis drew in Indian traders from Kenya as the transactions increased, quoted locals who said they saw evidence of peacekeepers’ links to the gold trade.

Local trader Evarista Anjasubu said he knew of transactions between Pakistani officers and two notorious FNI militia leaders, called Kung Fu and Dragon, who controlled the gold mines.

“It was gold that was the basis of their friendship. So the gold extracted from the mines went directly to the Pakistanis. They used to meet in the UN camp in Mongbwalu, in a thatched house,” he was quoted as saying.

William Swing, the representative to the UN secretary general in DR Congo, told the broadcaster he would “categorically deny” that troops rearmed militia and that there was “absolutely nothing” to the charge.—Reuters

Qudssia Akhlaque from Islamabad adds: Pakistan said that authorities would probe the charges against its troops working in the UN peacekeeping mission.

Foreign Office Spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said Pakistan’s permanent mission in New York had been informed by the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) that the BBC had contacted them for a story on some allegations.