Volcker probe doc on Iraq to be kept at UN

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 23: The United Nations is storing the voluminous documents from an independent commission that investigated the scandal-ridden oil-for-food program for Iraq for at least two years, the world body said.

The data will be available to UN member nations, if approved by the secretary-general, who will be South Korean Ban Ki-moon as of January 1. But the papers will not be released to the public.

The Independent Inquiry Committee, led by former US Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, has closed its doors but turned over its documents, paper and electronic, to the United Nations' management department.

A four-page bulletin from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said some papers would be restricted because of an agreement made by the Volcker committee with informants, some of whom would be exposed to ''the risk of harm, actual harm or retaliation.'' The oil-for-food humanitarian program, which began in 1996 and ended in 2003, was designed to ease the impact on ordinary Iraqis of UN sanctions, imposed when Baghdad's troops invaded Kuwait in 1990.

Iraq was allowed to sell oil in order to buy food, medicine and many other goods.

Volcker accused more than 2,200 companies in 66 countries of diverting some 1.8 billion dollar to the former government of Saddam Hussein under the 64 billion dollar program. Some nations have started investigations of individuals, groups and companies but many have ignored the bribes and kickbacks.

The committee said the UN secretariat, headed by Annan, mismanaged the scheme and accused the former UN head of the programme of benefiting personally from the program.

Reuters