France Urges Caution in Oil-For-Food Case

France Urges Caution in Oil-For-Food Case
Associated Press
John Leicester
October 7, 2004

PARIS - France urged caution Thursday in dealing with a U.S. inspector's allegations it was involved in corruption at the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq, while others singled out in the report rejected the charges as "far-fetched."

The report issued Wednesday by Charles Duelfer, head of the Iraq Survey Group, said Saddam Hussein issued secret vouchers for the purchase of oil, which could then be resold at a profit, to an array of officials and political figures from various countries, mainly Russia, France and China.

The report named former French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri and the Russian radical political figure Vladimir Zhirinovsky as voucher recipients and implicated foreign governments, including Namibia and Yemen.

Zhirinovsky, who frequently traveled to Saddam's Iraq and had called for increased trade between the two countries, adamantly denied the claim in the report, which also cited top Russian oil companies Yukos and Lukoil as recipients.

"I never took a drop (of oil), or a single dollar from Iraq or from any other country. I have never dealt with oil," the Interfax news agency quoted Zhirinovsky as saying Thursday. "I do not care what someone might have received, I personally gained nothing."

Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa also rejected the accusations.

"There is no credence to these allegations," Natalegawa said. "It's a fact that we took part in the oil-for-food program, but this notion of vouchers is far-fetched. There were no dealings other than the oil-for-food."

The Namibian government also was quick to proclaim it had never received vouchers from Saddam or purchased any oil from Iraq.

"We never had any connection to Saddam Hussein. My president has condemned Saddam Hussein," Information Minister Nanjolo Mbumba said in a telephone interview from Windhoek. He added that Namibia buys all its oil from South Africa.

Pasqua's office said the former interior minister, who recently won a Senate seat and the parliamentary immunity that it confers, was not immediately available for comment.

But French Foreign Ministry spokesman Herve Ladsous counseled caution, saying the allegations weren't checked with the people or countries involved.

"It is important to assure oneself very precisely on the veracity of this information," he said. "We understand that these accusations against companies and individuals were not verified either with the people themselves or with the authorities of the countries concerned."

Russia's Foreign Ministry expressed its support for the investigation into the alleged bribes.

"The investigation that is being conducted should result in an objective picture of possible irregularities that could have been committed under the oil-for-food program," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said.

"Russia, like all countries, is interested in the results of this investigation being objective," he said, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.

Yukos and Lukoil officials also could not be reached for comment.

The names of American companies and individuals who may have been involved in oil deals weren't released because of U.S. privacy laws, the report said.

Separately, Swiss authorities said Thursday that the owner of a Geneva-based oil trading firm has been fined $39,500 for making illegal payments for oil contracts in Saddam's Iraq and 10 more companies could be investigated.

The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs fined the head of the company for paying $60,000 to win a contract for the purchase of Iraqi crude oil under the U.N.'s oil-for-food program, said spokesman Othmar Wyss. Iraq failed to honor the contract and did not sell any oil to the company, despite the payment, the secretariat said. Wyss declined to name the person or the company involved.

The oil-for-food program was designed to allow limited oil sales to pay for humanitarian goods, but critics and U.S. congressional investigators have long alleged that administration of the program was rife with corruption and failed to prevent illicit business deals and massive kickbacks to the Iraqi government.