Mirza Aman Bahraini Columnist: THE oil-for-food programme scandal has become a stinking carrion, more you dig in it more stink it gets. The programme, which was established in 1996 to provide Iraq with the opportunity to sell oil to finance the purchase of humanitarian goods, food and medicine, was in fact a conspiracy against Iraq, its people and its wealth, US and UN investigations revealed.
Reports show that the real reason behind creating oil-for-Food programme was not easing the effects on Iraqi civilians of UN sanctions imposed on Saddam's regime, as UN and US claimed, but to bribe UN officials, buy influence in the US, conspire with Saddam against the Iraqi people, finance UN and US military, administrative and special presences in and around Iraq and to pay what is called "compensations" for the victims of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
The oil-for-food programme scandal began with accusing Kojo Annan, the son of the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, of overcharging, mishandling shipments of goods and supplies to Iraq and using his father's position to sign contracts for his Swiss-based company Contecna. But during the investigations, which proved the charges against Kojo Annan and indicted him, more scandals emerged showing that Kojo Annan was just one of many people involved in the corruption of the programme. In addition to Kojo Annan there were UN officials, international war merchants, lobbyists and foreign governments and agencies doing what Kojo Annan was doing, if not more. The investigations led to holding more investigations and suspects dragging the feet of other suspects and officials involved in the scandal.
After proving the accusations against Kojo Annan, US prosecutors revealed that three Americans associated with Houston-based Bayoil were colluding with Saddam's representatives and officials in diverting oil-for-food funds to their own pockets. One of the three Americans, Texas businessman and the head of Bayoil, David Chalmers, was indicted last Thursday as part of the scandal. Prosecutors are chasing the other two. Chalmers and the other two are charged with paying millions of dollars to secret kickbacks to Saddam in return of allowing Bayoil to continue selling Iraqi oil under oil-for-food programme. According to the Fox News, Chalmers was also charged "with wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy, which carries a sentence of up to 40 years in prison; engaging in prohibited financial transactions with a country supporting international terrorism, which carries a maximum of 10 years in prison; and violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which prohibits transactions with the Iraqi regime and carries a sentence of up to 12 years in prison." US prosecutors also plan to file a forfeiture notice seeking about $100 million in funds from Bayoil for oil purchased.
US prosecutors also issued an arrest warrant against a South Korean man called Tongsun Park, who they say acted as an intermediary between the Iraqi government and the United Nations when the negotiations were going on to set up the oil-for-food programme. According to US officials, Park, who was accused in the seventies of the last century of trying to buy influence in the Congress, played a major role in bringing UN and Iraqi officials together to create oil-for-food programme and that he acted as banker for Iraqi bribe money. The American officials, according to Fox News, added that Park, along with Samir Vincent, the Iraqi-American who is now cooperating with the American authorities, arranged a meeting in Geneva involving two Iraqi officials and a man identified in the federal complaint as "UN Official No. 1" to discuss the proposed oil sale programme. Fox News added that that meeting "happened in the same month that then UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali was in Geneva, meeting Saddam's deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, to discuss Iraqi oil sales. The timing of those meetings is something investigators are looking at very closely."
On behalf of Saddam, an Iraqi-American and a Korean designed the oil-for-food programme and succeeded in selling it to the UNSC and the US. An American company and some businessmen are accused of paying millions of dollars to Saddam's secret accounts.
Park is now accused of stealing $10 million in 1995 from Iraq "to take care of his expenses and his people," stealing $5 million in 1996 to fund business dealing with his UN partner known as "UN official 2," stealing $1 million in 1997 and said that he got that money from a Canadian company established by the son of "UN Official 2." He and an identified partner stole money from the programme in 1997 to take care of "UN Official 1," and received $5 million from Saddam's government for "setting up oil-for-food programme."
Samir Vincent, who lately admitted to being an illegal agent of Saddam's government, received $10 million from Saddam's government, deposited to his account in the Channel Islands. On behalf of Saddam Hussein, Vincent and Park designed the oil-for-food programme and succeeded in selling it to the UNSC and the US.
In addition to all those suspects and stories, there are also reports, which claim that the entire programme was created as a result of huge bribes going to UN officials and that unnamed high-ranking UN officials have benefited from those bribes. International politicians, observers and human rights activists are asking Kofi Annan to investigate those charges and disclose/name those "high-ranking UN officials" to the world.
The other issue investigators are looking into is the shredding of thousands of UN documents. According to the investigations, Iqbal Riza, Kofi Annan's chief of staff, authorised the shredding of thousands of UN documents related to the oil-for-food programme, a few weeks before the beginning of the investigation. Investigators are looking into why those documents were shredded and why Kofi Annan announced the retirement of Riza immediately after he shredded the documents and immediately replaced him with a new chief of staff.
On the other hand, Kofi Annan began his campaign to defend himself, his organisation and people and throwing the ball back to the American courtyard. Defending his assistants, officials, agencies and committees, Annan accused the US and Britain of helping Saddam earn more money. Annan said that the US and Britain bore part of the blame in the Iraq oil-for-food debacle by allowing unsupervised oil exports that Saddam Hussein exploited. "Most of the money Saddam earned was by oil sold to Jordan and Turkey outside of the UN programme," Annan explains.
Because of the findings and the outcomes of the investigations, prosecutors and investigators began questioning and suspecting many individuals, officials, areas and committees. They are now looking at UN Security Council's oversight of the $64 billion oil-for-food programme, how the council handled the fund and why Saddam was allowed to use it for his own personal wealth and political influence. They are looking into whether Iraqi oil contracts were awarded to Security Council countries in an attempt to influence council decisions on Iraq, and whether banks inside and outside Iraq may have helped facilitate corruption. They are looking into who proposed the programme, why he proposed it, was it worth doing and where the Iraqi money went all those years.
It is really the trial of the century and is expected to reveal many surprises.
© Bahrain Tribune 2005
