Australia AWB may have broken terrorism laws-counsel

CANBERRA, Sep 29 (Reuters) Australia's monopoly wheat exporter AWB Ltd might have broken anti-terrorism laws with payments to Saddam Hussein's Iraq, an inquiry was told today.

Internal AWB e-mail documents tabled at the inquiry show the company in 2001 believed Iraq wanted foreign currency to build 2,000 bunkers, possibly to hide the bodies of dead Kurds.

''The bunkers will have cement walls and floors so they are actually designed for burying the Kurds,'' the e-mail from an AWB executive to other staff said, Australia's domestic newsagency AAP reported today. The inquiry by retired judge Terence Cole is examining whether AWB broke any Australian laws with 222 million dllar in alleged kickbacks to Saddam's former government, paid as trucking fees through Jordanian trucking company Alia.

Counsel assisting the inquiry John Agius told Cole he had to consider ''whether or not it might be said AWB committed an offence under terrorism offences in the criminal code''.

Former AWB managing director Andrew Lindberg, who returned to the witness box today, said he did not know the trucking fees were being channelled to Saddam's government.

Asked about the e-mail suggesting the money could be used for bunkers to hide human rights abuses, Lindberg said: ''Well I hope that wasn't said in a serious way''. Commissioner Cole asked Lindberg if he could explain how large amounts of money could be paid to Iraq through the trucking company.

''It's obviously been a disaster for AWB and, no doubt, for you personally. Are you able to give me any understanding as to how you think this came about, how it happened in a company like AWB?'' Cole asked.

Lindberg said he had not followed all the evidence of the Cole inquiry, but said the trucking payments were set up before he started to run AWB.

Cole began his inquiry after a UN report by former US Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker accused AWB of channelling money to Saddam's government through inflated trucking charges in breach of the UN oil-for-food programme.

The Cole inquiry is due to hand down its findings in late November.

Under Australian laws, companies found guilty of bribing foreign officials face a fine of up to A0,000 (246,000 dollar), while individuals face up to 10 years in jail.

Lindberg, who resigned from AWB in February, admitted in January that AWB had deceived the United Nations by not disclosing service fees and other charges in wheat contract information.

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