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UN: Russia, France, China led Saddam's kickbacks list
New York (dpa) - Russian, French and Chinese companies that did business with the U.N. oil-for-food programme paid the bulk of some 1.8 billion dollars in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein, who also received billions more from oil smugglers, independent investigators said in their final report Thursday. Governments approved private-sector contracts with the United Nations and Baghdad during the 1996-2003 programme with the former Iraqi regime - an involvement that has led to charges of corruption at the highest levels. When the oil-for-food began, companies from all countries signed on. But by 2000, the report said, Saddam's regime gave preference to companies in Russia, France and China because those three countries favoured lifting U.N. economic sanctions imposed on Iraq in 1990 after it invaded Kuwait. Paul Volcker, the former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman who led the two-year inquiry, concluded the probe by saying reform of the United Nations was urgent. Already, the fallout has included the jailing in France two weeks ago of former U.N. ambassador Jean-Bernard Merimee, 68, accused of taking bribes from Saddam. Other governments have been less conspicuous in tracking down corrupted officials. All revenues from the seven-year programme were deposited in escrow at France's Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP), for use in a humanitarian programme that distributed daily food rations to up to 60 per cent of ordinary Iraqis, who were suffering under U.N. sanctions. Volcker's final report found that a total of 4,500 companies from 66 countries signed contracts under the former programme to buy Iraqi oil and sell everything from food and medicine to machines and farm products to Iraq. Companies and individuals were involved in illicit kickbacks, including 40 countries that paid the illicit surcharges on oil purchases imposed by the Saddam Hussein government beginning in 2000. The surcharge was 50 U.S. cents on top of the price for each barrel of oil. It said the former dictator received at 1.8 billion dollars in kickbacks, an amount dwarfed by payments from oil smuggling by neighbouring countries, which was estimated at about 11 billion dollars. The oil smuggling was carried out outside the oil-for-food. U.N. headquarters received warnings it was going on, but nothing was done, the report said. Saddam's regime had authority to choose customers and the amount to be sold to each customer, the report said. The programme ended after U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq in March 2003. Volcker said the U.N. was responsible for mismanagement in the oil-for-food scheme and had been "weakened" by the scandal. "That is why reform is so urgent," Volcker said in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Financial transactions from 1996 to 2003 for the oil-for-food stood at more than 100 billion dollars, including 64.2 billion dollars deriving from purchases of Iraqi oil which were deposited into BNP, directly or through one of the bank's affiliates. The rest of about 39 billion dollars were for the purchases of food supplies for the Iraqis. Posted by: DanNY 2005-10-28 |
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