JEDDAH, 2 February 2004 — The Iraqi Governing Council is to set up a commission of inquiry following reports in the Iraqi press that Saddam Hussein paid millions of dollars in bribes to foreign politicians and political organizations. According to the Baghdad-based newspaper, Al-Mada, the web of bribery extended to some 46 countries - in Europe, in Arab states and as far away as Indonesia.
Some 270 organizations and individuals were allegedly in Saddam’s pay. The allegations are already having major political ramifications in many of the countries, especially in Bulgaria. Its president Georgi Puranov, is one of those named. He has denied the reports but opposition figures are calling for his resignation.
Russian politicians and parties have also been named, among them the Communists, the arch-nationalist Liberal Democrats and the liberals as well as ministries, officials in Chechnya and even the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Hungarian Interests Party, a minor right-wing group, has also been accused of receiving funds from the former Iraqi dictator.
The list, said the newspaper, is based on documents from the former State Oil Marketing Organization, the commercial wing of Saddam’s government.
Interim Iraqi Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari, who by coincidence was in the Bulgarian capital Sofia last week, told reporters there that offers of oil and money bribes were “standard practice” by Saddam Hussein.
Zebari was unable to confirm or deny the list in Al-Mada, saying that that it would have to be double-checked. However, the Iraqi oil ministry says it is authentic and a spokesman for the Governing Council in Baghdad, Mahmoud Othman, said that the ministry had been asked to verify the reports.
“The Governing Council has given a directive to the Oil Ministry to gather as much information as possible regarding these charges,” he said.
If proved true, the consequences in Bulgaria could be major. Not only has President Puranov, a former leader of the opposition Socialist party, been named but so too has his successor, the present party chairman Sergey Stanishev. Al Mada reported that the party had received $150 million. The president’s role is largely symbolic, although he has lately made public political statements.
A disgraced president could revive the debate for restoring the monarchy, the only candidate for which is the prime minister and former king, Simeon Saxecoburggotski. He would benefit if it is proved that the Socialists had taken money from Saddam. The socialists have, however, said that one of their members did trade with Saddam’s regime.
The Hungarian newspaper Magyar Hirlap has reported that the Hungarian Interests Party helped sell some 4.7 million barrels of oil in exchange for some $140 million in cash.
During the UN embargo, the party allegedly signed a deal in 1999 with Iraq’s ruling Ba’ath party. Abdul Sahib Qotob, an undersecretary in Iraq’s Oil Ministry, said that the documents showed how Saddam had squandered the country’s oil wealth on people “who had supported him and turned a blind eye to the mass graves and injustice inflicted on the Iraqi people.”
