It was revealed yesterday that the UN has delivered a stern rebuke to the Australian government, for stonewalling its own investigation into kickbacks to Saddam Hussein.
UN investigator Paul Volcker apparently described Australia's attitude to his investigation as "beyond reticent, even forbidding" at a meeting in New York on February 7 2005, according to an internal government report released yesterday.
Volcker rebuked the Australian Ambassador, John Dauth, after learning that Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer had refused his UN investigating team permission to interview Australian government officials personally, as well as blocking access to classified Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade cables.
Mr Volcker had been investigating companies abuse of UN sanctions against Saddam. The Australian wheat company, AWB, was the worst offender; paying almost $300M in bribes to Saddam.
The Australian government has always claimed that it has co-operated fully with the Volcker Panel.
Clean hands?
No comments:
Post a Comment