April 21, 2005
Two Resign Over U.N. Oil-for-Food Inquiry
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

UNITED NATIONS, April 20 - Two investigators with the committee studying corruption in the oil-for-food program have resigned in protest, asserting that a report that cleared Kofi Annan of meddling in the $64 billion operation was too soft on the secretary general, a panel member said Wednesday.
The investigators, identified as Robert Parton and Miranda Duncan, felt the Independent Inquiry Committee played down findings critical of Mr. Annan in an interim report in late March related to his son, Kojo Annan, according to Mark Pieth, one of three leaders of the committee.
The committee told the story that the investigators presented, but we made different conclusions than they would have, Mr. Pieth said. You follow a trail and you want to see people pick it up, he said of the investigators who left.
Mr. Annan's spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said the resignations were an internal committee matter and refused to comment.
Mr. Parton, as the senior investigative counsel for oil-for-food, was responsible for investigations into the procurement of companies under the program and was the lead investigator on issues pertaining to allegations of impropriety relating to the secretary general and his son. Ms. Duncan worked on Parton's team.
Mr. Parton, a lawyer and former F.B.I. agent, confirmed on Wednesday that he had resigned a week ago, but he declined further comment.
Ms. Duncan did not respond to phone and e-mail messages left at the Rockefeller Family Fund, where she is a board member. She is a granddaughter of David Rockefeller.
The committee's interim report last month faulted Mr. Annan's management of the oil-for-food program. It also said Mr. Annan had not properly investigated possible conflicts of interest surrounding a United Nations contract awarded to the Swiss employer of Kojo Annan. But it said the secretary general had not violated United Nations rules.
U.N. Says Special Envoy to Leave
By The New York Times
UNITED NATIONS, April 20 - Maurice F. Strong is stepping aside as Secretary General Kofi Annan's special envoy to North Korea until an investigation is completed into his ties to the lobbyist Tongsun Park, a United Nations spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said on Wednesday.
Mr. Park, a South Korean who was the central figure in an influence-peddling scandal in the 1970's, was charged by United States authorities last week with being an unregistered lobbyist for Iraq and trying to influence the United Nations oil-for-food program.
Mr. Strong, a Canadian businessman, has admitted an association with Mr. Park but has denied any connection with United Nations activities in Iraq.