US, Britain 'looked other way'

2005-04-15 07:57

Nick Wadhams

United Nations - United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Thursday that the United States and Britain are partly to blame for Saddam Hussein's regime making billions of dollars in illicit money from smuggling oil while under United Nations sanctions.

Annan said the Americans and the British could have stopped the smuggling but did not, and most of the money Saddam made illegally when his country was under the UN sanctions in the 1990s was from smuggling oil, not from kickbacks under the UN oil-for-food programme.

"They were the ones who had interdiction, possibly they were also the ones who knew exactly what was going on, and the countries themselves decided to close their eyes to smuggling to Turkey and Jordan because they were allies," Annan said.

The United States had ships in the Persian Gulf to intercept smugglers, and allegations have swirled for years that Washington looked the other way while some of Iraq's neighbours made substantial profits from oil smuggled out of Iraq. Shipments to Jordan and Turkey were not concealed.

Looked the other way

While the smuggling occurred, the administrations of US presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush publicly went to Congress for waivers that allowed Jordan and Turkey to continue receiving US aid despite their violations.

A spokesperson at the British mission refused to comment.

Annan partly excused the smuggling to Turkey and Jordan, saying the UN Charter requires states affected by sanctions on another country to be compensated.

"We didn't have billions to compensate these countries, and some felt the oil going in was a way of compensation to them, and so it was all generally accepted," Annan said.

The secretary-general was speaking at a reunion of current and past UN spokesperson, and his comments were part of a vigorous defence of the United Nations against recent media attacks.

The UN oil-for-food programme, which was endorsed by the United States and begun in 1996, permitted Iraq to sell oil despite a stiff UN economic embargo against Saddam's regime, provided the proceeds were used to buy food and medicine for Iraqi people suffering under the sanctions.

Beginning at least by 2000, Saddam's government, which had the power to choose who would have the right to purchase oil, demanded that those it dealt with be willing to pay kickbacks.

Estimates of how much illicit money Saddam's regime may have made from smuggling and corruption in the oil-for-food programme range from $9bn to $21bn.

But former US Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, who is conducting an independent investigation, said Saddam gained far more money from smuggling than through oil-for-food deals.

Annan himself has come under fire recently over the handling of the oil-for-food programme. Volcker criticised Annan for not pressing to learn details of his son Kojo's employment by a Swiss company that won a contract under the programme. - AP

- SAPA