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| Sunday, 6 February 2005 |
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Annan vows truth in Iraq oil-for-food scandal Saturday (AFP) UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Friday vowed to clear the name of the United Nations after a new report found serious wrongdoing by the head of the former UN oil-for-food programme in Iraq. "We are as determined as everyone to get to the bottom of this. We do not want this shadow to hang over the UN," Annan told reporters at the world body's headquarters in New York. "Obviously there were some hard knocks in the report and we are concerned about it," he said. "We intend to take action promptly." An interim report by an enquiry panel on Thursday found Benon Sevan, who headed the programme, obtained allocations of oil from Saddam Hussein's regime. It said Baghdad was trying to buy influence with Sevan, hoping he could make it easier for the regime to get hold of spare parts to help rebuild its oil industry, which was shattered by the 1990-1991 Gulf War. The report stopped short of saying he had taken bribes or committed a crime but the head of the panel, former US Federal Reserve banking chairman Paul Volcker, cautioned that the investigation would continue. Sevan has denied any wrongdoing, and his lawyers on Thursday said the report was an attempt to scapegoat the veteran UN official. "We had not expected anything of the sort" from Sevan, said Annan, whose chief of staff suggested that the Volcker panel had all but proven the allegations. "The secretary general is shocked by what the report has to say about Mr Sevan," the chief of staff, Mark Malloch Brown, said. "He very much doubts there can be any extenuating circumstances to explain the behaviour which appears proven in the report," Malloch Brown said. The panel said Sevan had repeatedly asked for allocations of oil from Baghdad on behalf of African Middle East Petroleum, run by a relative of Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Annan's predecessor as UN secretary general. From 1996 to 2003, the 64-billion-dollar oil-for-food programme was intended to help Iraqis cope with international sanctions imposed over Saddam's invasion of Kuwait, which sparked the 1990-1991 Gulf War. Under UN supervision, Baghdad was allowed to sell oil and use the revenue to buy humanitarian supplies like food and medicine. The plan became the largest aid programme in UN history. Annan has promised to lift the diplomatic immunity of any UN official facing criminal prosecution and on Thursday announced disciplinary actions against Sevan and another official. Sevan has already retired from active UN duty, and it was not immediately clear what measures the UN could take against him. Separate US investigations into the programme could eventually lay criminal charges. "What we have, as of today, are serious charges regarding the conduct of certain UN officials and recognition of the need for broader management reforms and increased transparency," said deputy US state department spokesman Adam Ereli. "There have been serious questions raised by this report and they go to the heart of the role of the UN," Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, Samir Sumaidaie, told a press conference. "Iraqis generally feel that this programme was subverted to suit Saddam and his regime, and that a lot of people benefited from this," Sumaidaie said. "Gradually the facts will appear." He added that Baghdad still objects to the funding of the Volcker investigation, from an account that took a percentage of Baghdad's oil sales to pay for the administration of oil-for-food. He said any funds still in oil-for-food coffers should be returned to Iraq "without delay." |
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