United Nations — The United States said Wednesday that there is evidence that foreign companies are paying illegal kickbacks demanded by Iraq on humanitarian goods sent under the U.N. program to help ordinary Iraqis cope with sanctions.
"I'm sure it is happening," acting U.S. Ambassador James Cunningham said. "There's not a lot of hard evidence, but there is evidence that it's happening. We don't know to what degree."
The United States is looking for people with information to come forward so that U.N. officials can get a better idea of what is happening and try to correct any instances where people are violating sanctions, he said.
Iraq's U.N. Ambassador Mohammed Al-Douri challenged the United States to give proof of Iraqi kickbacks. "I think they have none, and they will not have evidence, simply because these allegations are not true," he said.
The 4-year-old U.N. oil-for-food program allows Iraq to sell oil, provided most of the money goes for humanitarian relief and equipment to rebuild its frayed oil infrastructure. Proceeds from the oil sales go into a U.N.-controlled escrow account, and contracts must be approved by the sanctions committee.
On Wednesday, The New York Times quoted unidentified diplomats and U.N. officials as saying Iraqi authorities required companies to pay bogus fees or hide commissions behind false prices for commodities such as wheat, sugar, rice or cooking oil. The money would then be deposited in foreign accounts for Iraq.
Diplomats told the paper that some governments were investigating reports from companies that said they had refused Iraq's demands for kickbacks.
Any surcharges or payments would clearly violate sanctions imposed by the Security Council after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait and council resolutions on the oil-for-food program, said Norway's U.N. Ambassador Ole Peter Kolby, who heads the committee monitoring sanctions against Iraq.
Kolby and the ambassadors of Britain and Russia said Wednesday that allegations of kickbacks on humanitarian supplies have circulated for weeks but had not been confirmed.
"There's no hard evidence" that foreign companies have paid surcharges or commissions to Saddam Hussein's government for contracts to supply food, medicine and humanitarian supplies ranging from water pumps to oil industry spare parts, Kolby said.
"But of course, I guess also companies that do that are not likely to tell anybody, or at least to be rather discreet about it because it is clearly illegal," he said.
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