With the full weight of the Security Council behind him, former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker opened an independent investigation Wednesday into allegations of corruption and kickbacks stemming from the UN's humanitarian program in Iraq.
His three-member panel will hire and oversee a team of investigators, accountants and legal advisers expected to pore through thousands of pages of UN contracts awarded over the years to international companies that did business with Saddam Hussein's regime.
But Volcker's panel will have no subpoena authority and will need to rely on voluntary cooperation from foreign governments, UN staff, members of Saddam's former government and current Iraqi leaders who claim they have evidence that dozens of people including top UN officials took kickbacks from the US$67 billion oil-for-food program.
PHOTO: EPA
The Security Council on Wednesday unanimously approved the independent investigation of the program that US lawmakers say allowed billions of dollars in illegal oil revenue to flow to Saddam Hussein.
In Washington, a panel of Bush administration officials involved in the UN program told the House Government Reform subcommittee that there was a widespread system of kickbacks in the UN program that benefited officials within Iraq, including Saddam Hussein.
But they said there is no corroborated evidence so far that UN officials were part of the scam.
US State Department official Patrick Kennedy reported to the committee that allegations that some UN career officials -- including the oil-for-food program's executive director -- directly benefited from the program "are unsubstantiated allegations without any evidence to support them."
In addition to Congressional inquiries, Paul Bremer, the top US official in Iraq, has directed an Iraqi auditing agency to conduct its own investigation of the allegations, said Kennedy, the US representative for UN Management and Reform.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Wednesday that he took the allegations seriously.
Annan launched an internal inquiry in February but canceled it last month to allow a broader, independent examination.
"I want to get to the truth and I want to get to the bottom of this so I am happy they are taking on this assignment," Annan said.
Volcker, who will lead the three-man investigative panel, insisted on the resolution setting out the inquiry's aims before he would agree to head the probe.
"A full, fair investigation, as conclusive as we can make it, is in the long-term interest of the UN -- that's the only reason I'm here," Volcker said. "Whatever it shows, if it shows something bad in the UN, [then they'll] clean it up.''
Yugoslav war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone of South Africa and Swiss criminal law professor Mark Pieth will work with Volcker.
END OF AN ERA: The vote brings the curtain down on 20 years of socialist rule, which began in 2005 when Evo Morales, an indigenous coca farmer, was elected president A center-right senator and a right-wing former president are to advance to a run-off for Bolivia’s presidency after the first round of elections on Sunday, marking the end of two decades of leftist rule, preliminary official results showed. Bolivian Senator Rodrigo Paz was the surprise front-runner, with 32.15 percent of the vote cast in an election dominated by a deep economic crisis, results published by the electoral commission showed. He was followed by former Bolivian president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga in second with 26.87 percent, according to results based on 92 percent of votes cast. Millionaire businessman Samuel Doria Medina, who had been tipped
ELECTION DISTRACTION? When attention shifted away from the fight against the militants to politics, losses and setbacks in the battlefield increased, an analyst said Recent clashes in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Jubaland region are alarming experts, exposing cracks in the country’s federal system and creating an opening for militant group al-Shabaab to gain ground. Following years of conflict, Somalia is a loose federation of five semi-autonomous member states — Puntland, Jubaland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle and South West — that maintain often fractious relations with the central government in the capital, Mogadishu. However, ahead of elections next year, Somalia has sought to assert control over its member states, which security analysts said has created gaps for al-Shabaab infiltration. Last week, two Somalian soldiers were killed in clashes between pro-government forces and
Ten cheetah cubs held in captivity since birth and destined for international wildlife trade markets have been rescued in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. They were all in stable condition despite all of them having been undernourished and limping due to being tied in captivity for months, said Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which is caring for the cubs. One eight-month-old cub was unable to walk after been tied up for six months, while a five-month-old was “very malnourished [a bag of bones], with sores all over her body and full of botfly maggots which are under the
BRUSHED OFF: An ambassador to Australia previously said that Beijing does not see a reason to apologize for its naval exercises and military maneuvers in international areas China set off alarm bells in New Zealand when it dispatched powerful warships on unprecedented missions in the South Pacific without explanation, military documents showed. Beijing has spent years expanding its reach in the southern Pacific Ocean, courting island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads and generous offers of climate aid. However, these diplomatic efforts have increasingly been accompanied by more overt displays of military power. Three Chinese warships sailed the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, the first time such a task group had been sighted in those waters. “We have never seen vessels with this capability
RSS