Wednesday, April 28, 2004
CNN.com - Annan lashes out at oil-for-food critics
In his strongest comments to date on the burgeoning oil-for-food scandal, Annan said U.N. officials were blamed for Saddam's smuggling of oil and a variety of other misdeeds that they had no way of controlling.
"We had no mandate to stop oil smuggling," Annan told a news conference. "They were driving the trucks through northern Iraq to Turkey. The U.S. and the British had planes in the air. We were not there."
He called some of the comments he read "constructive and thoughtful." But he said: "Others have been outrageous and exaggerated. In fact, when you look at it, if you read their reports, it looks as if the Saddam regime had nothing to do with it. They did nothing wrong. It was all the U.N."
Y'know, it's funny, that's exactly how we Americans quite often feel. And I have some unfortunate news. Whether the scandal was a product of willful corruption, or simply a consequence of an entity afflicted with systemic problems, in this case tackling a program that was way too big for it to handle, those are both intrinsic UN problems. The sooner more people understand how dangerous an entity like the UN is - again, whether from corruption or systemic limitation - the better.
The U.N.-run oil-for-food program, which began in late 1996 and closed last year, allowed Iraq to sell oil and buy civilian goods to ease the impact of 1991 Gulf War U.N. sanctions on ordinary Iraqis.
Annan said that if corruption against any U.N. official proved true, he would not hesitate to lift diplomatic immunity. He has appointed a three-member panel, led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, to probe the allegations.
Among media charges was a conflict of interest because Annan's son worked for the Geneva-based firm Cotecna. The company in December 1998, was awarded contract to monitor Iraqi imports under the oil-for food program after a British firm withdrew its agents because of U.S. bombing.
Kojo Annan joined the company as a trainee in Geneva in December 1995 and then worked in Nigeria and Ghana. He submitted his resignation on December 15, 1997, which went into effect on February 28, 1998.
Annan said his son had joined Cotecna "before I became secretary-general, as a 22-year old trainee" and went to work in West Africa.
"Neither he nor I had anything to do with the contract with Cotecna," Annan said. "That was done in strict accordance with U.N, rules and financial regulations. The panel investigating this issue will look into it thoroughly and issue a report that I hope will clarify the issues."
Most of the misdeeds in the scandal were reported over the years to a Security Council committee that supervised the program, particularly the smuggling of oil, surcharges from oil dealers and shoddy goods Baghdad had ordered. But political divisions often prevented action.
New since the fall of the Saddam are lists of bribes to government officials, firms and groups around the world of oil vouchers they could sell. On the list is Benon Sevan, the head of the oil-for-food program, who has vigorously denied it.
On Wednesday, John Ruggie, a Columbia University professor and former U.N. adviser, questioned whether some of the charges had an anti-U.N. agenda in testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives International Relations Committee.
He said the U.N. Security Council had oversight of the program and approved some 36,000 contracts.
"Yet, as best as I can determine, of those 36,000 contracts not one -- not a single solitary one-- was ever held up by any member on the grounds of pricing," he said.
Because support for the sanctions was rapidly eroding, Ruggie said "it seems reasonable to infer that the U.S. and Britain held their noses and overlooked pricing irregularities in order to keep the sanctions regime in place."
