Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Iraq ambassador rebukes former U.N. chief

|
|
 
  
Published: Feb. 4, 2005 at 3:46 PM

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- The Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations has criticized former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali for his role in the Iraq oil-for-food program.

Ambassador Samir Sumaidaie told reporters Friday at U.N World Headquarters in New York he had serious doubts about the way Boutros-Ghali conducted himself, and that the secretariat under his charge had "bent over backwards to please the Saddam regime."

The Financial Times reported that Paul Volcker, in charge of the inquiry into the oil-for-food scandal, said on UK television Thursday night Boutros-Ghali would be "very central" to the inquiry.

The charges in Volcker's report released earlier Thursday centered on Boutros-Ghali's selection of the French Banque National Paris to hold the oil-for-food escrow account.

"Why should he interfere in the selection of the bank in order to please the Iraqi government at that point?" Sumaidaie said.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told reporters Friday he would not want to "second guess" Boutros-Ghali.

The oil-for-food program came into effect in late 1996 as Boutros-Ghali was about to retire.

Topics: General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Paul Volcker, Samir Sumaidaie
© 2005 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 27
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego wins Finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee
View Caption
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego, California watches confetti rain down as she wins the two-day Scripps National Spelling Bee championship, May 31, 2012, in National Harbor, Maryland. Nandipati successfully spelled the word .* guetapens *, meaning to lure or ambush. UPI/Mike Theiler
fark
You're an enterprising bank robber: You have 30 minutes to knock off 3 banks. GO
Veteran found buried in Florida National Cemetery without casket -- only a cardboard box. Florida...
At the unveiling of the official portrait of President George W. Bush, Joe Biden turned to Karl...
Women who know about their husband/boyfriends' porn usage less happy than women who do not know...
Smoking hot gun-toting college student: "It's my hobby to blow stuff up." Bonus: Her last name is...
You know how I know you're gay? Maybe it was your facial width-to-height ratio? The science of 'Gaydar'...