UN-Truth

Fox news and the BBC World Service are both reporting that Benon Sevan has been indicted in connection with some kind of financial irregularities in the UN’s Oil-For-Food programme, which Benon Sevan directed — but why is there nothing yet on the websites of the FBI, or the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, or INTERPOL?

The Fox News story says: “Former U.N. Oil-for-Food chief Benon Sevan has been indicted in New York federal court for allegedly taking bribes under the program from Saddam Hussein’s regime, U.S. authorities announced Tuesday. The charges, detailed in a joint press release by the FBI, the U.S. Attorney’s office and the Manhattan district attorney, came over a year after former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker completed an investigation for the United Nations into the massively corrupted Oil-for-Food program that operated in Saddam’s Iraq between 1996 and 2003.  According to the press release, Sevan allegedly received $160,000 generated from the sale of Iraqi oil under the program from one Ephraim Nadler, an associate who was also indicted, on behalf of the government of Iraq. The money was allegedly used to pay off overdue credit cards and bills.  Specifically, the two were charged with wire fraud, based on their depriving the United Nations of its right to Sevan’s honest services; bribery concerning an organization — the United Nations — that receives more than $10,000 annually from the federal government; and conspiracy to commit these offenses.  If convicted, Sevan would face a maximum sentence of 50 years’ imprisonment. Nadler, who was also charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud by engaging in prohibited financial transactions with Iraq and violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, would face a maximum sentence of 112 years’ imprisonment if convicted.  Warrants have been issued for the two through Interpol.  Sevan, through his lawyers, has denied that any funds were obtained illegally.  The career diplomat is thought to be currently living in Cyprus. That nation’s extradition treaty with the U.S. does not cover financial crimes, so it is unclear as to what impact the charges would have on Sevan.” 
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,243909,00.html

There is something about these accusations that doesn’t really hold up.

If — as an Iraqi paper reported in January 2004 — Benon Sevan was given some piece of paper entitling him to some kind of discounted purchase of Iraqi oil under the UN’s programme that he ran, it’s more likely that he might have thought it was an amusing joke — maybe he might have even taped the paper on his office wall — than he actually took advantage of it.

Even more, there is nothing now on the website of either the FBI or the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, about this reported indictment.  There’s nothing on the Interpol website, either.  [Interpol is an organization of member states, just like the United Nations -- and, interestingly, the current President of Interpol is Jackie Selebi, the National Commissioner of the South African Police Service.  Selebi was also formerly South Africa's Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, who was elected Chairman of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva in 1998 -- and, as such, would certainly have been acquainted with Barzan al-Tikriti, Iraq's former ambassador to the UN in Geneva, and half-brother of Saddam, who was gruesomely decapitated during his executition by hanging earlier this week.  Selebi was a large presence in the Human Rights Commission -- and presided in a booming baritone, in an effort to make the meetings start on time, and be less noisy:  "Will the lady in the red dress -- yes, you, in the back of the room -- please sit down", he would command.   It is now easier to find information on the Human Rights Commission, which has been superseded by a Human Rights Council, through a google search than from the UN's own website.   Selebi, meanwhile, is currently involved in a complicated controversy in South Africa over his friendship with a person who is suspected of murdering a suspected "drug lord", according to reports in the South African press...]

A lot of funny stuff happened in the UN’s Oil-For-Food programme — and almost all of it was with the full knowledge of the members of the UN Security Council — all of them, including the five Permanent Members (U.S., Russia, China, U.K., and France) who supervised the programme. 

The UN set up the Oil-For-Food Programme, and made up the rules as they went along — not very well, as it turned out.

Benon Sevan narrowly escaped death in the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad in August 2003 when he left a room where he was meeting Sergio Vieira de Mello — to smoke a cigarette.

Is it really unimaginable that his (now-deceased, killed in an elevator accident) aunt is the source of some $160,000 that she reportedly hand-carried from Cyprus to Sevan in New York over a period of some five years?

The Volcker inquiry said that Benon Sevan was at least responsible for a serious conflict of interest, when he recommended a friend and / or relative of then-UNSG Boutros Boutros-Ghali to Iraq’s Oil Ministry.  Is it really unimaginable that Benon Sevan was just doing what would at the time have seemed a routine favor for the former UN chief?

Filed under: Kofi Annan, Kofi Annan Watch, UN Secretary-General, UN Security Council