AP: French Ex-Minister Denies Scandal Ties
By JOHN LEICESTER
The Associated Press
Friday, April 29, 2005; 3:10 AM
PARIS -- France's former interior minister denied any involvement in suspected corruption in the oil-for-food program for Saddam Hussein's Iraq and said the detention of his former aide in an investigation into the program did not concern him.
Charles Pasqua, a conservative who headed the Interior Ministry in the late 1980s and early 1990s, was named in a report last October by U.S. arms inspector Charles Duelfer as one of several officials who allegedly benefited from corruption in the humanitarian program. The politicians and officials cited in the report were mainly from Russia, France and China.
In an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, Pasqua denied involvement in the scandal and said the detention earlier this week of his former aide, Bernard Guillet, in a French judge's investigation of the program does not concern me.
Asked about claims that he traded in Iraqi oil, he said: Of course not. All of that is ridiculous.
I have said and thus I confirm that I have strictly nothing to do with this affair. I never received anything. I never took part in any sales, he said in the telephone interview.
Pasqua, who in his current post as senator has immunity from prosecution, suggested he was unwittingly implicated in Duelfer's report.
If my name crops up, then someone must have used my name, he said. I have nothing to do with all of this.
The oil-for-food program was the largest U.N. humanitarian aid operation, running from 1996-2003. It was designed to let Saddam's government sell limited _ and eventually unlimited _ amounts of oil in exchange for humanitarian goods as an exemption from U.N. sanctions imposed in 1991 following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
Guillet, Pasqua's former aide was taken into custody on Tuesday and was presented Thursday before magistrate Philippe Courroye, who is investigating aspects of the U.N. oil-for-food program, judicial officials said. Guillet is under investigation for suspected influence-peddling and receiving misappropriated funds.
Pasqua said he and Guillet no longer work together. Since 2001, Mr. Guillet has been living his life and he is no longer with me, the former minister said. He is no longer my adviser.
Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said there were no grounds to take disciplinary action against his former chief-of-staff who shredded documents related to the oil-for-food scandal.
The Independent Inquiry Committee led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker criticized Iqbal Riza for giving approval to the shredding of three years of files on April 22, 2004 _ the day after the Security Council authorized the investigation into the oil-for-food program.
The files _ which Riza said were duplicates _ contained documents related to the oil-for-food program that were unavailable in the U.N. records file, a report by the committee said in March.
Annan said Volcker found Riza had acted imprudently and did not follow his own directive but he found no violations of staff rules. Riza retired as Annan's chief-of-staff at the end of last year. He was replaced by Mark Malloch Brown.
In another development, Dujarric told reporters Thursday that the United Nations would not pay the legal fees of Benon Sevan, the former oil-for-food chief who was accused of serious wrongdoing in his handling of the $64 billion program.
U.N. officials revealed in March that Annan had agreed to pay Sevan's legal fees but the decision was reversed after the Independent Inquiry Committee accused Sevan of a grave conflict of interest.
It said his conduct in soliciting oil deals from Iraq seriously undermined the integrity of the United Nations.
We did receive a letter from Mr. Sevan's lawyer earlier this month asking us to reconsider our position about the payment of his legal fees. The Secretary-General's position on that is unchanged and his legal fees will not be paid for by the United Nations, Dujarric said.
In a statement late Thursday, Sevan's attorney, Eric L. Lewis, said the promise to pay was absolute and unconditional.
Sevan was personally encouraged by Malloch Brown to seek a commitment to pay his legal expenses, and Malloch Brown raised the issue with Annan and confirmed the commitment in writing, the statement said.
It is troubling that the Organization would renege on a clear, repeated and unambiguous commitment in the face of criticism in the media, Lewis said.
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Associated Press Writers Verena von Derschau in Paris, Leyla Linton in the United Nations, and Balz Bruppacher in Bern, Switzerland, contributed to this report.