Former United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) investigator Peter Gallo tells Newsmax "it certainly looks" like there was some sort of coverup going on at the UN over the recent child abuse scandal involving French peacekeeping soldiers.
"The information was leaked to the press as early as the 29th of April. The UN has had over a month to do something or say something and they came out on Wednesday and said they were going to form a panel, they don't know who's going to be on the panel and they don't know what the panel's terms of reference are," Gallo told Ed Berliner on "MidPoint" on
Newsmax TV on Friday.
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"What's happened today is the name that's being suggested for chairing this panel is Patricia O'Brien, who is the former general counsel. I sincerely hope that's a joke because it's the classic example of an insider," Gallo said.
It was revealed that French soldiers working on behalf of the UN in the Central African Republic had sexually abused boys as young as 8 years old. UN staffers first learned of the sexual abuse allegations in May 2014.
"We know that the secretary general was aware from early April that the director of the Investigations Division of OIOS had recused himself from taking part in that investigation. That is a very significant move," Gallo explained.
"What's happened about it? Absolutely nothing. There's a real reason, a strong legal defect in any investigation that's been carried out by OIOS, and absolutely nothing has been done about it," he said.
As for the source of the cover-up, Gallo says that it at least "goes all the way up to Susana Malcorra, who is the secretary general's chief of staff.... It certainly extends throughout the management committee."
"The problem is not just the number of individuals at the very high level who are involved and being complacent in the cover-up and trying to pin the blame on Mr. [Anders] Kompass," who is the senior UN human rights official who first revealed the sex abuse scandal, Gallo explained.
"The culture of the organization has been called into question here because there are too many people prepared to go alone with flawed decisions and simply bad management calls," he added.
Gallo said he doesn't think the French are to blame for the scandal.
"As soon as the French were made aware of it, they moved as quickly as they could. What happened is they sent investigators down to the Central African Republic within days of receiving the information from Mr. Kompass and what then happened was that the UN staff on the ground obstructed them and refused to give them any cooperation," he explained.
"The UN blocked the French investigation under the pretense that they could not supply, and they would not hand over the names of the victims."
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