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U.N. envoy in Congo to stay on
The U.N. special representative to Congo, William Lacy Swing, will stay in his post for now to oversee the handling of a U.N.peacekeeper sex abuse scandal and increased turbulence in the country, the United Nations said Friday.
Swing met with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan Friday amid speculation that top United Nations officials wanted him to resign over the sex abuse allegations. Several officials and diplomats had said recently that his resignation was imminent.
The mission was thrust back into the spotlight again last week when nine Bangladeshi peacekeepers were killed in the eastern Ituri region, and when peacekeepers on patrol killed 50 militiamen after being fired on during a "search and cordon" operation.
Annan decided with all the turmoil in Congo, now was the wrong time for a change, the U.N. statement said. It said once things settle down, Annan would begin the process of finding a new special representative.
"They concluded that with his plate so full this was not the moment for a sudden change of SRSG with the disruption it would cause," the statement said, using the initials for the special representative of the secretary-general.
Swing avoided reporters as he left the building after meeting Annan. His two-year term in Congo ends at the end of June and it appears certain he would not seek another one.
Swing, a career U.S. diplomat, was never directly implicated in the sex abuse allegations. But he came under criticism after acknowledging that sex crimes continued to occur in Congo even after investigations were launched into the earlier claims and he instituted a "zero-tolerance" policy. |
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