UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- In a secret and secure location, a set of computers holds the hundreds of thousands of files that document how companies and individuals from some 40 countries exploited the U.N. oil-for-food program in league with Saddam Hussein. Yet nearly two months after the $35 million U.N.-backed probe that collected all those documents exposed just how troubled the program was, there has been no rush by the authorities in question to study it.
Prosecutors and investigators from just 11 countries have requested documents for prosecuting bodies since the probe's final report was released Oct. 27, said Reid Morden, executive director of the inquiry led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. Last week the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Paris-based group of 30 free-market democracies, urged governments to do more to investigate evidence of kickbacks and corruption. Morden said he was not concerned at the pace so far. "It's not surprising that things are drifting in as opposed to an avalanche at day one."
Some experts suspect there are governments that don't want to investigate their own complicity, or that treat bribery as the price of doing business abroad, or simply have judicial machinery that grinds slowly. Morden would not say which prosecutors have sought information, but an official close to the investigation said they were Australia, Britain, France, Germany, India, Italy, Jordan, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, and the United States. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the names of the countries have not been released.
Some of the most active prosecutors are in the United States, where 15 people have been charged; France, where judges are investigating 10 officials and business leaders; and Switzerland, where a criminal probe is focusing on at least four people. Yet in others, like Russia, home to many of the companies that participated in the oil-for-food abuses, there appears to have been little movement.
"I don't think it's surprising that some of these governments may be less than assiduous in following up," said James Dobbins, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state now with the Rand Corp. "It probably depends in part on the exact facts of any given case, but I don't think in most cases they're going to prosecute it with a crusading zeal."
The oil-for-food program, established in 1996 with Iraq's economy crippled by sanctions, allowed Saddam to sell oil in exchange for humanitarian goods meant for his people. But Volcker's inquiry showed that Saddam sold oil to foreign countries in hopes of getting their support for lifting sanctions, and enriched himself by $1.8 billion through a kickback scheme. Companies and politicians essentially paid him for the right to do business, circumventing the U.N. program.
Even the head of the program, Benon Sevan, was accused of accepting some $147,000 in kickbacks, a charge he denies. Sevan is being investigated by the Manhattan District Attorney's office but has returned to his native Cyprus, which has no extradition treaty with the United States. In November, the Volcker committee's mandate was extended to Dec. 31 in order to preserve investigators' access to the documents, and Morden said the team would ensure that they can get them well beyond that date.
Fearing the report may be ignored, some U.S. lawmakers have shared information with foreign authorities and pressed them to take action.
Norm Coleman, the Minnesota Republican who chairs a permanent Senate subcommittee on investigations and has been a leading critic of both the U.N. and oil-for-food, has met with several ambassadors of countries whose companies or government personnel were said to be involved.
But worldwide anti-corruption surveys show that paying bribes and kickbacks are generally seen as a necessary part of dealmaking with foreign countries. Iraq was clearly one of them, said Charles Duelfer, a former U.S. weapons inspector whose own report on Iraq's weapons capabilities, released last year, also detailed much of the wrongdoing in oil-for-food. "Certainly Iraq, even before oil-for-food and sanctions, conducted business by buying influence," Duelfer said.
But anti-corruption advocates say that should be no excuse for the many reputable U.S. and European companies named in Volcker's report. "It was absolutely everyone," said Juanita Olaya of Transparency International, a Berlin-based anti-corruption watchdog. "It's easy to fall into the commonplace of saying the Iraqi regime was terrible, but the whole cauldron of things there was terrible. There was of course a lot of secrecy, but how come 2,200 companies had to bear this and you never heard someone blowing the whistle out loud?"
Since Volcker's report appeared, Volvo has acknowledged paying the regime, with chief executive Leif Johansson telling the Swedish news agency TT, "This was the way to do business in Iraq." Siemens of Germany has denied wrongdoing, while German authorities are investigating a former employee of DaimlerChrysler AG over the sale of a vehicle to Iraq mentioned in the inquiry.
Two leading politicians have faced public scrutiny for their involvement. India's former foreign minister, Natwar Singh, was demoted after the allegations arose, and then resigned on Tuesday, still denying wrongdoing. France is investigating Jean-Bernard Merimee, its former U.N. ambassador. "In the United States I have confidence that they will investigate and prosecute wherever it's appropriate, I just hope other member governments do the same," U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said.
Megawati Sukarnoputri, former president of Indonesia and ultranationalist Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky were among politicians named in the report. Both have denied wrongdoing and no investigation has been announced.
The government of Jordan, whose companies were prominent among alleged violators, said more than a month ago that it has begun an inquiry. But the most prominent Jordanian mentioned in the report, Fawaz Zureikat, said he hasn't been contacted yet. Zureikat, a Jordanian businessman, was accused of funneling money from the oil-for-food program to the wife of British parliamentarian George Galloway and a political organization that Galloway established in 1998 to help a 4-year-old Iraqi girl with leukemia. Galloway insists he's the innocent victim of a "witch hunt."
Zureikat, who has denied any wrongdoing, offers a widely held claim that the oil-for-food investigation is a largely U.S.-led campaign to discredit the United Nations. "The United States wants the U.N. to be disqualified as a responsible organization in international affairs," he said. | I think that's worked out very well, don't you? |
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