UN envoy knows accused in oil-for-food scandal
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April 18, 2005
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Former UN secretary general Boutros Boutros-Ghali was good friends with South Korean businessman Tongsun Park who has been accused of accepting millions of dollars from Iraq in the United Nations oil-for-food scandal, former UN officials said.
Maurice Strong, a prominent Canadian businessman who is current UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's special adviser on North Korea, also acknowledged ties to Park but denied any involvement with the UN humanitarian program for Iraq.
Boutros-Ghali and Strong have been the subject of speculation, along with several other past and present UN officials, since a U.S. criminal complaint was filed against Park last week citing two unidentified high-ranking UN officials.
Others whose names have been floated in UN corridors include Annan, who succeeded Boutros-Ghali; Annan's former chief of staff Iqbal Riza and the late Ismat Kittani, a former Iraqi UN ambassador who later served both Boutros-Ghali and Annan.
Park, who was accused of trying to buy influence in the U.S. Congress in the 1970s in what became known as the Koreagate scandals, is now accused of accepting millions of dollars from Iraq while acting as an unregistered agent for Baghdad in the United States.The U.S. complaint calls for the arrest of Park, who was reported to be hiding in Japan and considering a U.S. plea-bargain offer, said South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo newspaper.
The reported involvement of two UN officials is expected to cast a new shadow on the world body, which has spent more than a year trying to get to the bottom of allegations of massive corruption in the $64-billion US oil-for-food program that was aimed at helping Iraqis cope with UN sanctions.
Several current and former UN officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said while he was secretary general from 1992 to 1997, Boutros-Ghali was good friends with Park. One said they met during an Asian trip and several said they saw Park at UN headquarters in New York City.
"I do recall at least two occasions when Tongsun Park met with Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali," said Gillian Sorensen, former UN assistant secretary general for external relations who organized the 50th-anniversary commemoration of the United Nations in 1995.
"It would have been 1993, in the run-up to the commemoration," she said.
"I had no dealings with him whatsoever...I gather he was a friend of the secretary general."
Boutros-Ghali's office at the International Association of la Francophonie in Paris did not answer.
Strong said in a statement Monday he has "continued to maintain a relationship" with Park and Park invested in an energy company he was associated with in 1997. Strong led several power companies in Canada, including Petro-Canada, Ontario Hydro and the Power Corporation of Canada.
The statement did not identify the company, though one knowledgeable UN official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it failed. UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said Strong was in the Dominican Republic recovering from an illness.
Strong said Park, who was born in North Korea, had advised him on Korean issues.
"Having served UN secretaries general since 1970 in several advisory and executive capacities, I have had no involvement or connection whatsoever with the UN's Iraqi oil-for-food program or any other of its Iraqi activities," he said.
The indictment against Park states he arranged a meeting with a person identified in court papers as "UN Official 1" and two Iraqi officials in Geneva around June 1993.
Boutros-Ghali was in Geneva in June 1993 with some UN staff for a meeting with Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz. They discussed Baghdad's reluctant compliance with ceasefire terms from the Persian Gulf War.
Park was accused of telling a government witness in 1995 he needed millions of dollars from Iraq to "take care" of his expenses and his people. The witness believed that meant "UN Official No. 1."
In 1996, a second high-ranking UN official attended a restaurant meeting with Park, an Iraqi official and the government witness. After "UN Official 2" left, Park allegedly said he had used a $5-million US guarantee from the Iraqi government to fund business dealings with "UN Official 2," court papers said.
There was no hint in Strong's statement about whether he is "UN Official 2."
Park told the government witness in 1997 or 1998 he had invested about $1 million he received from Iraq in a Canadian company established by the son of "UN Official 2," though the company failed and the money was lost.
Strong said he is willing to give any further information to investigators "so as to have this cloud removed as soon as possible."
The oil-for-food program, which ran from 1996 to 2003, was created to help Iraqis cope with UN sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. It let the Iraqi government sell limited - and eventually unlimited - amounts of oil primarily to buy humanitarian goods. But deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein chose the buyers of Iraqi oil and the sellers of humanitarian goods.
The complaint calling for Park's arrest was made public at the same time as an indictment charging a Texas oil company owner and two oil traders from Britain and Bulgaria with paying millions of dollars in secret kickbacks to Saddam to secure oil deals. The Texan and Bulgarian pleaded not guilty Monday.
