Romanian journalist Ovidiu Ohanesian from 'Romania Libera' newspaper is seen in this undated file photograph. Ohanesian, Prima TV reporter Marie Jeanne Ion and cameraman Sorin Miscoci, were kidnapped in Iraq on March 28, 2005 Romania's President Traian Basescu said. REUTERS/Romania Libera/Handout
An undated picture from Romanian television station Prima TV, shows one of their cameramen Sorin Dumitru Miscoci, 30, one of the three Romanian journalists who were allegedly kidnapped Monday March 28, 2005 in Baghdad Iraq. The others are Bucharest daily Romania Libera reporter Ovidiu Ohanesian, 37 and reporter Marie Jeanne Ion, 32, also of Prima TV. They went missing the Iraqi capital shortly after an interview with interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, the newspaper's director Petre Mihai Bacanu told The Associated Press. (AP Photo/PrimaTV)
Romanian reporter Marie Jeanne Ion from Prima TV is seen in this undated file photograph. Marie Jeanne Ion, Prima TV's cameraman Sorin Miscoci and reporter Ovidiu Ohanesian from 'Romania Libera' newspaper were kidnapped in Iraq on March 28, 2005, Romania's President Traian Basescu said. REUTERS/Handout
Romanians Kidnapped in Iraq Sent Desperate Messages
By Radu Marinas BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Three Romanian journalists kidnapped in Baghdad managed to send desperate messages to relatives and colleagues before disappearing on Monday, the latest foreigners to be abducted in Iraq.
"We're kidnapped. This is not a joke," one of the three, Prima TV reporters Marie Jeanne Ion, managed to message her mother from her mobile phone, Magdalena Ion told Realitatea TV.
Her cameraman Sorin Miscoci and journalist Ovidiu Ohanesian of the Romania Libera daily newspaper, all on a short reporting trip to Iraq, were also missing, authorities said.
Staunch U.S. supporter Romania set up a crisis center to handle the situation while President Traian Basescu said both local and foreign secret services had been alerted.
The kidnappings happened while Basescu was on a whistlestop visit to Afghanistan and Iraq, where Romania has some 800 troops in the U.S.-led military coalition occupying the country.
Like other east European countries grateful to Washington for its support in shedding communism, Romania is a faithful U.S. ally that has unwaveringly supported the war in Iraq, providing logistical support and troops.
It joined NATO in 2004 and is eager to host permanent U.S. military bases on its Black Sea coast.
"I would like to believe that only economic reasons triggered their situation. I don't want to believe that their kidnapping was politically motivated," said Simona Marinescu, an adviser to the Romanian embassy in Baghdad.
More than 150 foreigners have been seized in Iraq over the past year. Most have been freed after negotiations or payment of ransom, but about a third have been killed. Many more Iraqis have been abducted, often for ransom.
The news editor of Prima TV, Dan Dumitru, said Ion managed a quick call to her newsroom before disappearing and that he had heard her desperately pleading with her kidnappers.
"I heard Arabic, English and Romanian words shouted," he said. "I heard her imploring the attackers not to kidnap them because they come from a poor country which won't be able to pay the ransom."
Her mother appealed to authorities not to rush into rescue operations before hearing out the abductors. "Please don't send special troops to look for them," Magdalena Ion said. "We must wait and see what the kidnappers want."
Journalists at Romania Libera had a difficult time believing their colleague Ohanesian was kidnapped since there was no official confirmation or demand from the kidnappers.
"We cannot say we are absolutely positive he was kidnapped. We have tried to contact our colleague and we will continue to try," said fellow journalist Cornel Popa.
Former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, chief of the investigation probing the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq, ;leaves a meeting with Secretary General Kofi Annan at the United Nations, Tuesday March 29, 2005. A report to be released Tuesday will fault Annan for failing to take aggressive action to deal with possible conflict of interest in the awarding of a U.N. oil-for-food contract to Cotecna Inspection S.A., which employed his son, Kojo, in Africa, the officials said. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Annan receives new report on misconduct probe of Iraq Oil-for-Food programme
29 March 2005 – The independent committee probing alleged misconduct and mismanagement in the United Nations Oil-for-Food programme for Iraq today presented to Secretary-General Kofi Annan a second interim report dealing with the employment of his son by a Swiss company awarded a contract in the multibillion dollar relief effort.
Former United States Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, head of Independent Inquiry Committee (IIC), brought the document, which will be made public at noon, to Mr. Annan in the Secretary-General’s 38th floor office at UN Headquarters in New York.
Mr. Annan is to hold a news conference on the report’s findings this afternoon.
Last week, the Secretary-General’s Chief of Staff, Mark Malloch Brown, said Mr. Annan expected to be fully exonerated by the report concerning past employment of his son, Kojo, with the Swiss company Cotecna, which was awarded a contract to monitor the now defunct Oil-for-Food programme that allowed then sanctions-bound Iraq to sell oil in exchange for humanitarian supplies.
Mr. Malloch Brown told a news briefing that Mr. Annan had consistently maintained that he himself was not guilty of any wrongdoing, that Kojo’s work for Cotecna had nothing to do with its contract, and that Kojo had confirmed that he misled his father about the extent of his relationship with the company.
Annan Criticized in Oil-For-Food Report
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - Investigators probing the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq will criticize U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, his son, and the Swiss company that employed him but will not accuse the U.N. chief of corruption, officials said.
The report to be released Tuesday will fault Annan for failing to take aggressive action to deal with possible conflict of interest in the awarding of a U.N. oil-for-food contract to Cotecna Inspection S.A., which employed his son, Kojo, in Africa, the officials said.
It will also be highly critical of Kojo Annan for concealing information about his dealings with Cotecna and for deceiving his father, and it will blame the Swiss firm for failing to make information public about the secretary-general's son, the officials said on condition of anonymity.
The report will be the second issued by the team of investigators led by former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker. It comes a week after Annan called for the biggest overhaul of the United Nations in its 60-year history. It also coincides with allegations of sex abuse by U.N. peacekeepers and of sexual harassment and mismanagement by senior U.N. staff.
Volcker's committee of inquiry will also censure Annan for failing to detect shortcomings in the U.N. bureaucracy that allowed problems in the $64 billion humanitarian aid program to continue until it was wrapped up after the U.S.-led war in Iraq, the officials said.
While the new report will fault the secretary-general's overall management of the oil-for-food program, it will support statements by his chief of staff and spokesman as recently as Monday that "the secretary-general expects to be cleared of any wrongdoing."
As one official said, "He's not going to be implicated in corruption in any form whatsoever."
For the secretary-general, this will almost certainly be the most important finding. But it may not appease his critics, including several U.S. lawmakers who have called for his resignation.
The oil-for-food program was the largest U.N. humanitarian aid operation, running from 1996-2003. Saddam Hussein's government was allowed to sell limited amounts — and eventually unlimited amounts — of oil in exchange for humanitarian goods as an exemption from U.N. sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
In a bid to curry favor and end sanctions, Saddam allegedly gave former government officials, activists, journalists and U.N. officials vouchers for Iraqi oil that could then be resold at a profit. U.S. congressional investigators say Saddam's regime may have illegally made more than $21 billion by cheating the program and other sanctions-busting schemes.
Senior U.N. officials insist the secretary-general has no intention of stepping down, and U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard dismissed reports describing the secretary-general as weak and depressed.
Kofi Annan, his son, and Cotecna all deny any link between Kojo Annan's employment and the awarding of the U.N. contract to the company.
The officials said Volcker still has questions about Kojo Annan and will state in the report that his investigation of the secretary-general's son is continuing. So is his investigation of Benon Sevan, who headed the oil-for-food program.
Volcker has promised a final report in mid-summer.
In his first report in February, Volcker accused Sevan of a "grave conflict of interest," saying his conduct in soliciting oil deals from Iraq was "ethically improper and seriously undermined the integrity of the United Nations." He also questioned where Sevan got $160,000 in cash, calling it "unexplained wealth" despite Sevan's claim it came from his aunt. Sevan's attorney has said he did nothing wrong.
Kojo Annan worked for Cotecna in West Africa from 1995 to December 1997 and then as a consultant until the end of 1998 — just when it won the oil-for-food contract. He remained on the Cotecna payroll until 2004 on a contract to prevent him from working for a competitor in Nigeria or Ghana, but that was only disclosed in November.
At the time, the secretary-general said he was "very disappointed and surprised" that his son continued to receive money.
Cotecna initially said Kojo Annan was only employed until 1998. It released details of his payments only last week, after a report in the Financial Times and the Italian business daily Il Sole 24 said he received over $300,000, double the amount previously reported.
Cotecna spokesman Seth Goldschlager told The Associated Press last week that Kojo Annan got more than $365,000 from the company — about $200,000 as a full-time employee and consultant from 1995-1998 and more than $165,000 from 1999 until February 2004 under the so-called "non-compete" contract.
He also disclosed that Volcker sought payment records from five companies linked to the firm for the years 1996 to 2004. The Swiss accounting firm BDO Visura is currently conducting an audit, expected to be completed at the end of April.
Goldschlager also confirmed reports in the two papers of three meetings between Kofi Annan and Cotecna executives and disclosed a fourth contact. Two were in social settings, one in Annan's U.N. office, and one after the Cotecna contract was signed.
As for Sevan, the United Nations on Monday reversed its decision to pay his legal fees related to the investigation. The plan to pay Sevan's fees had stirred controversy because of the seriousness of the allegations against him and because U.N. officials said the reimbursements would be paid with money from Iraqi oil sales used to finance the oil-for-food program itself.
Associated Press writer Desmond Butler contributed to this report.