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| Europe |
| Belarus Aided Saddam |
| 2003-05-06 |
| A likely appointee to the interim Iraqi government said Belarus should be called to account for allegedly providing military aid to Saddam Hussein in violation of United Nations sanctions. "We have documents about this, and in any case we will raise this question in the U.N. Security Council and demand punishment for those Belarusian bureaucrats who took part in violating sanctions," Iyad Allawi, leader of the Iraqi National Accord, was quoted as saying in an interview published Tuesday in Vremya Novostei, a liberal independent daily. Allawi is one of five anti-Saddam leaders with whom U.S. officials have been consulting over the formation of Iraq's interim government, and he is expected to be one of that government's leaders. Allawi said there was no evidence that Russia had given Saddam military aid while U.N. sanctions - imposed after Saddam's 1990 invasion of Kuwait - were in effect. However, Allawi said some of Iraq's $12 billion debt to Russia was for illegal deals and would not be recognized. "Robbery took place, not only from the Iraqi side," Allawi said. "We have information and we will give it to the Russian government." Allawi pointed in particular to former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, whom he accused of defending Saddam "for personal profit." Primakov, a Middle East expert, Soviet-era diplomat and spymaster who was a Pravda newspaper correspondent for the region during the Cold War, knew the Iraqi leader for decades. Russia dispatched him to Baghdad several times to try to avert war - first in 1990, then this year. "We have almost full certainty that Primakov received certain sums from Saddam for this (defending him)," Allawi said, without elaborating. The interview, conducted in Baghdad, did not say what Allawi's allegations were based on. Rumors about Primakov's alleged self-interest in Iraq have floated around for years. Russian Foreign Ministry officials, including Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, have vehemently denied them. Primakov's office was closed for Russia's May holidays and neither he nor his spokeswoman could be reached for comment Tuesday. Yevgeny Primakov, soon to be involved in a tragic (insert vehicle here) accident. Allawi also said that all the government contracts with Russian companies are now terminated. Bwahahaha! Many Russian oil companies have hoped to resume work in postwar Iraq; Russian analysts estimate the value of their contracts at tens of billions of dollars. You could of had these contracts renewed, but you got in bed with the French. Now all you have is a nasty rash. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #2 I'm thinking Primakov was the bagman between the Kremlin and Baghdad. The bigger and more secret the deal, the bigger the bagman needs to be. Unless Primakov was setting up his own 401K plan, he was operating under orders. Either way, he is now expendable. Maybe that's why he is unavailable for comments. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-05-06 10:47:14 |
| #1 Primakov didn't use a bagman? We're missing something here, or Primakov's not that bright. |
| Posted by: Raj 2003-05-06 09:58:44 |