[EOB] 51 Indian Army men involved in Congo sexual abuse cases

The Indian Army has launched a court of inquiry against 12 officers and 39 soldiers involved in cases of sexual abuse while they were deployed as UN peacekeepers in the strife-riven Congo. According to KMS, The inquiry is being held in Meerut in Uttar Pradesh where the officers and soldiers are being questioned to conclude if they had sexually abused local women and also fathered children while on a UN peacekeeping mission in 2008. The court of inquiry is headed by a brigadier, with two colonels as its members. The sexual abuse emerged after DNA tests commissioned by the UN on the children born to local women in Durla in the Congo showed they had distinctive Indian features.

The UN wrote to Indian Army requesting further investigations, with the latest reminder coming in August 2010. In January, the army asked its Chandimandir-based Western Command to order a court of inquiry and it was constituted on May 24, 2011. An Indian Army official underlined that there were some allegations and the investigation was underway and added that the army headquarters had received an inconclusive report from the UN. The regiment, in which the officers and soldiers were serving, was recalled from Congo and attached to the Western command headquarters.