Yakovlev and Sevan Just Tip of Oil-for-Food Iceberg

Alexander Yakovlev, a procurement officer at the UN in its oil-for-food program, has entered a plea of “guilty” in the Southern District of New York on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a desperate attempt to stanch the flow of credibility from this PR wound, waived Mr. Yakovlev’s diplomatic immunity and let US authorities prosecute. Worse, the Volcker Commission investigating the oil-for-food mess has determined that Benon Sevan, the former head of the UN’s oil-for-food program in Iraq, “corruptly benefited” from abuse of his position. Time for bigger heads to roll.

The UN has taken a beating in recent years, in part because of an American administration that understands nothing about the value of soft power, and in part because the UN is badly run. There is a place in the world community for such a body, but only if it works for the general membership and is seen to be working on their behalf. In the case of Iraq sanctions, it clearly didn’t.

The biggest problem with the UN oil-for-food program was its very existence. This silly effort was designed to ameliorate the suffering of the Iraqi people brought on by the sanctions imposed on the Saddamite regime after the 1992 Iraq War. Noble though it was, the real problem was economic sanctions themselves. Never in the history of conflict resolution have they worked on sovereign governments, and all they do is harm the common people. Alleviate the harm done to them, and the result is a complex system of managed trade that achieves nothing at all.

But as with any managed system of trade where the market is ignored and bureaucrats determine economic outcomes, the opportunity for abuse is huge. Were it not Messrs. Yakovlev and Sevan, it would have been someone else. Human beings are corruptible, and the temptation to skim a bit for oneself in such a situation is too great for some. The only hope is that the corrupt bureaucrats’ superiors will stop them.

The top people at the UN have failed to do this. This journal has already said Secretary General Kofi Annan should go. The corrupt members of his crew are less worrisome than the rapists “serving” as peacekeepers in the Congo, but they do enhance the case against him. There is a way forward, but it requires the resignations of Mr. Annan and those who permitted Messrs. Yakovlev and Sevan to line their pockets by ignoring their duty to the world community. And then, there is Ambassador Bolton, but that is another problem altogether.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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