Congo ? The investigative arm of the U.N. mission in Congo has opened an inquiry into allegations that Indian peacekeepers serving in this central African nation are illicitly trafficking in gold, a spokesman said Friday.

The probe is focusing on an Indian unit stationed in the eastern province of North Kivu near the Rwandan border, U.N. spokesman Kemal Saiki said.

The announcement came as the U.N. peacekeeping chief in New York, Jean-Marie Guehenno, discussed a similar but separate inquiry in Congo involving charges of gun and gold smuggling. She said it found no evidence of arms smuggling but pointed to the possibility that a Pakistani peacekeeper “may have facilitated gold smuggling.”

She also said the United Nations was sending a management audit team to Congo immediately “to obtain a full picture of various recent allegations of serious misconduct against U.N. personnel” serving with the peacekeeping force.