Iraq Demands Oil-For-Food Diplomats Face Justice

Reuters
February 4, 2005
ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=471358
Feb. 4, 2005 - Anyone who stole from the U.N.'s oil-for-food program for Iraq must stand trial and the money be repaid to the Iraqi people, Iraq's human rights minister said Friday.
Bakhtiar Amin praised Thursday's report by Paul Volcker, the former head of the U.S. Federal Reserve charged with probing corruption in the program, and said it revealed that even U.N. dignitaries were not above robbing the poor for profit.
It shows that some so-called dignitaries had not an iota of shame in their bones, no conscience and no morals, Amin told Reuters in an interview. They profited as parasites on the misery of an impoverished nation.
He revealed he personally had experienced the corruption, saying a Lebanese man was named in the report who had been involved in his father-in-law's 1994 assassination in Lebanon by Saddam Hussein's agents.
The oil-for-food program was used to fund terrorism, international terrorism, the minister said.
Benon Sevan, a Cypriot who ran the humanitarian program, was accused in the report of repeatedly soliciting and getting Iraqi oil allocations for a trading firm connected to the family of former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali.
The senior U.N. diplomat's conduct was ethically improper and seriously undermined the integrity of the United Nations, Volcker's interim report into the running of the now-defunct $67 billion program said.
The oil-for-food program, which began in December 1996 and ended in November 2003, allowed Saddam's government to sell oil to buy humanitarian goods. It was intended to ease the life of ordinary Iraqis under 1990 U.N. sanctions.
Amin said those proved to be involved should be rapidly brought to justice.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
While the 200-page report reveals wrongdoing, Volcker said we have not found a systematic misuse of funds dedicated to the administration of the oil-for-food program. The investigation continues and a final report is expected in June.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan vowed Thursday to discipline Sevan, who is retired but draws a small U.N. salary, and said if criminal acts were committed, diplomatic immunity would be lifted.
Sevan issued his own statement via a lawyer.
Mr. Sevan never took a penny, his lawyer Eric Lewis said. Unfortunately, in the current political climate, the Independent Inquiry Committee needs to find someone to blame.
Amin said beyond bringing those responsible to justice, it was essential that Iraqis who suffered under Saddam's regime and never benefited from oil-for-food as was intended, should be recompensed.
The money that has been stolen from the oil-for-food program is Iraqi money and has to be paid back to the Iraqi people, he said. There are too many victims of Saddam who suffered and they need to be paid compensation.
These people shouldn't get away with the money and live the rest of their lives in luxury. A lesson needs to be made of them. They benefited by stealing the bread of others.
Amin said the Lebanese who helped organize his father-in-law's killing was granted rights to seven million barrels of oil through the oil-for-food program as payment for his services.
Amin's father-in-law, a renowned tribal sheikh who was opposed to Saddam, had gone into exile in Lebanon and was assassinated in Beirut. 
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