Lantos Predicts Housecleaning at U.N.
Tuesday December 14, 2004 4:31 AM
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos expressed confidence Monday in U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan but predicted the world body will have to clean
house over allegations of corruption in the U.N.-administered oil-for-food
program in Iraq.
Lantos, the only survivor of the Holocaust in Congress, also said he was
appalled by reports of opposition by some Arab countries to the call by the
United States to hold a special session on Jan. 24 to mark the 60th anniversary
of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps.
Such opposition, the Hungarian-born Lantos said, ``reflects hysterical and
mindless venom, which is difficult to justify in the international arena.''
Lantos did not name the Arab countries he said opposed the session.
Annan favors such a session and has asked the General Assembly to convene it,
said U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric. A simple majority of the 191 U.N.
members must agree within 30 days to hold it.
Lantos, the senior Democrat on the House International Relations Committee,
said he came to the United Nations to express confidence in the integrity and
commitment of Annan, whose resignation has been demanded by Norm Coleman, a
Minnesota Republican.
Coleman is leading one of five U.S. congressional investigations into the
oil-for-food program. The program began in 1996 to help Iraqis cope with U.N.
sanctions imposed after Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
The General Accounting Office, the U.S. Congress' investigative arm, estimated
in March that Saddam's government pocketed $5.7 billion by smuggling oil to its
neighbors and $4.4 billion by extracting kickbacks on contracts under the
program.
Lantos, of California, said there was enough blame to go around in the scandal,
but he expects everything will come out when a high level panel headed by
former U.S. Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker issues the report of its
investigation into the program next month.
``As a supporter of the United Nations, I am convinced that the United Nations
will have to do some housecleaning and I am convinced that on the basis of the
evidence already in, governments will have to do significant mea culpas,'' he
said.
``It is clear that we are dealing with a gigantic fiasco unprecedented in
United Nations history, and clearly responsibilities will have to be assumed by
individuals in several countries and within this organization,'' he added.
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