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Indian envoy reveals role of ex-foreign minister in Iraq oil scam
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-12-02 17:35
A serving Indian ambassador has accused India's former foreign minister
Natwar Singh of being involved in a scam to profit from a UN oil-for-food deal
in Iraq.
The comments aired Fridya on Aaj Tak television sparked chaos in parliament
and calls for Singh to be prosecuted.
Anil Maithrani, who worked closely with Singh in the Congress Party before
being posted to Croatia, said Singh had received a special voucher to purchase
oil cheaply from Baghdad.
"The Iraqi embassy in Amman was a very key player. The Iraqis needed a green
light, the green light was provided to them by Natwar Singh," said Maithrani.
"One (oil voucher) was given to him (Singh) by name the other one was given
to the Congress party," during a visit to Iraq in January 2001.
Singh led a four member team to Iraq which included Maithrani.
"The fact of the matter is that both allotees ... in my view are exactly the
same ... one has been to Natwar and the other one to the Congress Party.
"One for Natwar's personal services. Don't forget that he has been the one
who has been espousing Iraq's cause," said Maithrani.
According to a report submitted by former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul
Volcker to the UN in October, former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's regime
manipulated the oil-for-food programme to extract about 1.8 billion dollars in
surcharges and bribes.
Volcker named Singh as a non-contractual beneficiary of four million barrels
of Iraqi oil allotted to Zurich-based firm Masefield AG.
Congress, India's oldest political entity, is also listed as a beneficiary of
a separate allotment of four million barrels of oil as part of the transactions.
Singh, who has consistently denied any wrongdoing, was stripped of his
foreign ministry portfolio last month when the scandal surfaced, but was
retained as a minister without portfolio in the cabinet.
The Indian government has ordered a judicial enquiry into the allegations.
In the upper house on Friday former foreign minister Jaswant Singh, now in
the opposition, pointed a finger at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
"The Prime Minister is also the Leader of the House ... he has given a clean
certificate to Natwar Singh," Jaswant Singh said.
In the lower house, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Lal Krishna Advani,
spearheaded the opposition attack.
"Anil Maithrani cannot be knowing more than Natwar Singh knows or what the
Congress party knows," said Advani.
"Natwar Singh exploited the invitation to the Congress party ... we have been
told that the Prime Minister will be making a statement after the disclosures of
Maithrani.
"I feel this is an outrageous insult to the house and the nation," Advani
said.
"I do not want Natwar Singh to be made a scapegoat of the scam. He has to go.
But the whole Congress party is involved in it," he charged.
Both houses were adjourned amid uproar till later in the
afternoon.
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