U.N. Accuses Iraq of Illegal Oil Shipments

05/05/2001| IslamWeb

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations accused Iraq on Thursday of smuggling some 10 million worth of oil in violation of U.N. sanctions regulations by loading the petroleum into a tanker after U.N. inspectors disembarked.
In 19 pages of documents submitted to the Security Council's Iraqi sanctions committee, Benon Sevan, head of the U.N. oil-for-food humanitarian program, said some 500,000 barrels of oil were loaded onto the tanker Essex last May and August from the port of Mina Al-Bakr.
Iraq denied the accusations. In a written response, its U.N. ambassador, Mohammed Aldouri, said the Iraqi oil marketing organization found that all papers were in order and it had ``no information on the subject of your letter.''
The incident is the first alleged proof Sevan's office has submitted on illegal oil sales, which oil traders say have been occurring for about a year. Most of the information came from Greek Capt. Chiladakis Thofanis of the tanker Essex and was sent to the United Nations and the U.S. Embassy in Athens.
Some of the cargo from the Essex was offloaded in Corpus Christi, Texas, industry sources reported.
The ship was then intercepted by the Dutch navy off the Caribbean island of Curacao, part of the Netherlands Antilles, at the request of the United States as a result of the captain's letter, diplomats said.
Under the U.N.-controlled oil-for-food program, revenues from oil sales are to be deposited in a U.N. account, out of which the United Nations pays suppliers of food, medicine and a host of other goods Iraq has ordered.
The U.N. Security Council has been deadlocked over efforts to stop the alleged smuggling, with Russia, an ally of Iraq, insisting there was little proof.