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  • Who stole the kids' food and medicine?

    * Who stole the kids' food and medicine?
    * IGC to probe into oil-for-food deal

    ************************************************** *******************

    Scripps Howard News Service
    March 23 2004

    Who stole the kids' food and medicine?

    An editorial / By Dale McFeatters
    Scripps Howard News Service
    03/23/2004

    U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan plans to establish an independent
    commission to investigate bribery and kickbacks in the
    U.N.-administered oil-for-food program for Iraq.

    A commission is a fine idea. Iraq will certainly not be the last
    U.N.-imposed embargo with a humanitarian loophole, and if the
    sanctions are to be effective they must be properly run. Clearly the
    oil-for-food program was not.

    Records seized in Iraq show Saddam Hussein's regime made payments to
    at least 270 foreign diplomats, government officials and
    corporations. One of them was Benon Sevan, the U.N. executive in
    charge of the program.

    The allegation is that these payments were bribes for the officials
    to look the other way while Saddam skimmed off more than $10 billion
    that was supposed to go toward buying food and medicine for his
    people.

    If the allegation is true, we'd like to see the United Nations go
    further and see these officials prosecuted, by their own countries
    or, if necessary, the international court in The Hague, Netherlands.

    First, it's a matter of simple justice. Crooks should be punished.

    Second, the United Nations has an obligation to clean its own house.
    The precedent of tolerating kickbacks to its officials and
    contractors is not a healthy one.

    Third, during the duration of the embargo, its chief supporter, the
    United States, took all kinds of abuse for supposedly depriving Iraqi
    children of food and medicine. The Iraqi children might have been
    sick and starving but the fault was the officials and their abettors
    who were stealing the money.

    That canard must be shown to the world for the false and baseless
    charge it is.

    ************************************************** *******************
    Al-Jazeera, Qatar
    March 23 2004

    IGC to probe into oil-for-food deal

    The programme handled billions in funds for food for Iraqis

    Iraq's Governing Council has decided to launch a formal inquiry into
    alleged corruption in the now-defunct UN-administered oil-for-food
    programme, a spokesman for council member Ahmad Chalabi said.


    "Saddam Hussein was able to loot billions of (dollars of) Iraqi
    people's money under the supervision of the United Nations,"
    Intifadh Qanbar, a spokesman for council member Ahmad Chalabi, told a
    news conference.

    He said the council would hire international legal and accountancy
    firms to help the inquiry investigate "all personalities, companies,
    families, leaders, politicians all over the world who received these
    bribes".

    Media reports have alleged that government officials, foreign firms
    and a senior UN official were among those who profited illegally from
    the humanitarian programme.

    Chalabi heads the US-backed council's finance committee, which has
    been making preliminary investigations.

    The United Nations has already begun an in-house probe of its staff
    and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan last week asked members of the
    Security Council for their support in a second independent,
    high-level inquiry into the allegations.

    Annan has been under pressure to conduct an inquiry from US officials
    searching for Saddam's suspected hidden assets.

    The inquiry will investigate "all personalities, companies, families,
    leaders, politicians all over the world who received these bribes"


    Intifadh Qanbar,
    Spokesman for Ahmad Chalabi, IGC

    One name on a published list was Benon Sevan, who ran the UN
    programme that began in December 1996 and ended a year ago.

    Oil companies chosen by Iraq put money into a UN escrow account out
    of which suppliers of civilian goods were paid to ease the impact of
    1991 Gulf War trade sanctions on Iraqis.

    Sevan has denied the allegations and UN officials have said they have
    not been given any documents.

    Foreign companies

    Annan, in his letter to Security Council members on Friday, said the
    media allegations must be addressed "to bring to light the truth and
    prevent an erosion of trust and hope that the international community
    has invested in the organisation".


    Annan has been under pressure
    to conduct internal UN probe

    UN officials say any probe would need to look at foreign companies,
    suppliers, middle men who bought the oil and the French bank
    BNP-Paribas, which handled the UN-Iraq account.

    The oil-for-food programme handled more than $65 billion in funds for
    food, medicine and other civilian goods. It was shut down last year
    after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam.

    The US General Accounting Office, an interagency body headed by the
    Treasury, is trying to locate and seize $10 billion to $40 billion in
    estimated hidden Iraqi assets.

    The GAO said in a report last week that Saddam acquired $5.7 billion
    of these assets from the proceeds of oil smuggled through Syria,
    Jordan, Turkey and elsewhere.
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