Annan expects blame over Iraqi oil program

By Peter Graff

LONDON (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said
on Monday he expected to face blame over the Iraqi oil-for-food
program when investigators deliver a report this week, and
wished the United Nations had never agreed to run it.

Annan told BBC World Service radio he believed chief
investigator Paul Volcker would also criticize others involved
in the corruption-tainted $64 billion program.

“I suspect that there will be lots of criticism (for)
myself as chief admin officer, probably something on the 661
committee, the Security Council, the government of Iraq,” he
said.

“When it comes to Iraq, on this issue no one is entirely
covered in glory.”

The now defunct program was designed to ship humanitarian
supplies into Iraq while allowing Baghdad to sell limited oil
under U.N. economic sanctions.

It was run by the United Nations and overseen by a panel of
Security Council member representatives, called the 661
committee after a resolution governing the sanctions.

Volcker, a former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman hired to
investigate the program, is due to issue a report of more than
1,000 pages on Wednesday on the investigation’s findings.

Among those expected to face criticism are Annan’s son
Kojo, accused of using his father’s name for personal profit
while working for a Swiss firm that won a lucrative contract to
inspect goods.

Annan is expected to be cleared of improperly interfering
in the contract on his son’s behalf, although sources close to
the investigation say he will be rebuked for failing to
supervise the program properly.

Annan said he wished the U.N. had had nothing to do with
the program.

“We have a whole range of activities, oil-for-food was an
extra program we were asked to undertake. Honestly I wish we
were never given that program, and I wish the U.N. would never
be asked to take that kind of a program again,” he said.

The oil-for-food program was designed to lessen the
humanitarian impact on Iraqis of U.N. sanctions imposed after
Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. It gave U.N. officials the power
to oversee billions of dollars in trade every year.

The program ran from 1996 until U.S.-led forces invaded
Iraq in March 2003 and toppled President Saddam Hussein.