Kevorkian Furloughed for Hernia Surgery

Associated Press
Friday, February 4, 2005

DETROIT – Assisted-suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian was released from
prison Thursday so he could undergo bilateral hernia surgery, his
attorney said.

Kevorkian, 76, is serving a 10- to 25-year sentence for second-degree
murder after being convicted of giving a fatal injection of drugs to a
Lou Gehrig’s disease patient in 1998.

Leo Lalonde, a Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman, said
Kevorkian would undergo the surgery at a hospital in Jackson, about 80
miles west of Detroit. Kevorkian is under constant guard in a secure
wing separate from regular patients, Lalonde said.

Mayer Morganroth, Kevorkian’s attorney, didn’t know when the former
pathologist would have the surgery, but said he likely would stay in the
hospital for a few weeks.

Kevorkian was given 10 minutes’ notice early Thursday that he was being
released from the Thumb Correctional Facility in Lapeer, Morganroth said.

“They’ve known he needed the surgery for quite a while,” Morganroth told
the Detroit Free Press. “They did some stress tests to see if his heart
could withstand it. I guess they decided it’s worth the risk.”

Besides the hernia, Kevorkian reportedly has hepatitis C, high blood
pressure, arthritis, a heart murmur, circulatory problems and the
beginning stages of cataracts in his eyes.

“I’m really concerned,” Morganroth said. “His health is quite poor.”

The Michigan Parole Board in December refused to act on Morganroth’s
request to parole Kevorkian, saying the application was essentially the
same as one he submitted for Kevorkian in November 2003. Gov. Jennifer
Granholm’s office denied that earlier request.

Kevorkian has said he assisted in at least 130 deaths, but has promised
in affidavits and requests for pardon or commutation that he would not
assist in a suicide if he is released from prison. He is eligible for
parole in 2007.

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Kevorkian hospitalized for hernia operation

The Daily Oakland Press (Oakland County, Michigan)
Friday, February 4, 2005

JACKSON – Assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian is expected to
undergo surgery today to repair a bilateral hernia, his lawyer said.

Mayer Morganroth said Kevorkian, 76, was taken to a hospital in Jackson
for treatment Thursday.

“It’s very painful,” Morganroth said. “But it, by itself, should not be
life-threatening. I think he’ll be OK. These types of things get harder
as he gets older, though.”

Kevorkian’s health is failing, Morganroth said, and he doesn’t expect
his client to live more than a year. Kevorkian has suffered from high
blood pressure, hepatitis C, a circulation condition and dental problems
in prison.

Leo LaLonde, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections, said
there is a secure unit at the hospital for prisoners. Kevorkian will be
under constant guard while there and will likely be sent back to prison
shortly after the surgery to recover in the Thumb Correctional
Facility’s clinic.

The state will pay for the treatment, LaLonde said, but can seek
reimbursement from prisoners who have assets. LaLonde would not comment
on how much the surgery will cost or about Kevorkian’s medical
condition, citing federal privacy rules.

Morganroth said Kevorkian has been trying to get Gov. Jennifer Granholm
to pardon him or commute his sentence based on his medical condition,
but that request has been denied. Granholm has granted four medical
commutations since taking office.

The Michigan Parole Board recently denied Kevorkian’s request for
parole. He is eligible again in November, Morganroth said.

Kevorkian is serving a 10- to 25-year prison term for second-degree
murder in the 1998 death of a Waterford Township man, 52-year-old Thomas
Youk.

Kevorkian videotaped the death of Youk, who had Lou Gehrig’s disease.
The CBS news show 60 Minutes broadcast the euthanasia and Oakland County
prosecutors charged Kevorkian. Kevorkian has claimed to have assisted in
more than 130 suicides.

Shocked Georgians Mourn Prime Minister

Associated Press
Friday, February 4, 2005

BY JIM HEINTZ, Associated Press Writer

TBILISI, Georgia – Hundreds of shocked Georgians gathered Friday in the
snow in central Tbilisi to mourn Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania, whose
death has left the struggling former Soviet republic worried for its future.

Zhvania was found dead early Thursday in a friend’s apartment,
apparently the victim of carbon monoxide poisoning from a poorly
installed gas heater. The friend, a regional politician, also died.

The 41-year-old Zhvania was a key figure in attempts to lift the country
out of its post-Soviet economic collapse and political turmoil.

Zhvania was one of the leaders of the 2003 “Rose Revolution” protests
that propelled President Mikhail Saakashvili to power and brought down
his predecessor, Eduard Shevardnadze.

Zhvania earned deep respect and affection and was seen as a moderating
balance to the sometimes-incendiary boldness of Saakashvili, who was
elected president in 2004.

“Soon all of Georgia will feel what Zurab Zhvania meant for them,” said
mourner Ksenia Kuparadze, a 70-year-old pensioner outside the apartment
of Zhvania’s grieving mother, where the body was brought late Thursday.

“After the Rose Revolution, when the country was in complete collapse,
he was able to get us out of economic difficulties. Teachers started
getting paid on time, pensioners got their pensions,” Kuparadze said.

Shevardnadze, whom Zhvania helped force out of office, also praised the
late prime minister’s achievements. “I hope the course chosen by him
will be preserved,” he said.

Parliament speaker Nino Burdzhanadze cut short a foreign trip and
returned to Tbilisi on Friday, calling on the government to “continue to
work in its usual rhythm” despite “a big loss for Georgian politics and
the Georgian state.”

That call, alongside Saakashvili’s statement a day earlier that the
country’s government was in control, appeared to hint at wide anxiety
that Zhvania’s death could undermine the stability that has been tenuous
at best in Georgia since its independence in 1991.

Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, Georgia was riven by two
separatist wars that left large regions de facto independent and
courting ties with Russia. Zhvania was a key figure in trying to
negotiate final agreements on those still-unresolved tensions, which had
been exacerbated by Saakashvili’s provocative pledges to re-exert
control over the regions – South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Zhvania also pushed for efforts to wipe out the corruption that had
sapped Georgia’s economy and induced widespread mistrust of authority.
One notable move was a restructuring of the country’s police force,
which was infamous for bribe-taking.

“It will be difficult to be president without Zhvania. In my opinion, he
played the role of a careful and kind magistrate,” said Dzhudzhuna
Kartvelishvili, a 43-year-old scholar. “It will be difficult but I think
we will be able to find people who will be that much useful to the country.”

Authorities called Zhvania’s death an accident, another of the many
carbon-monoxide poisonings that have troubled the capital since its
central-heating system went out of service in 1992 and many residents
turned to wood and gas stoves to keep warm.

In a country with a history of political intrigue and violence, many
Georgians wondered whether authorities were telling them the truth.

“There were plenty of people who envied Zurab, many were hoping that a
conflict would break out between him and the president,” said historian
Grigory Dardzhanian.

Parliament member Elena Tevdoradze, who visited Zhvania’s mother, Rima,
on Friday, said the woman asked her, “What do you think, did they kill
my son?”

Georgian lawmaker Alexander Shalamberidze linked Zhvania’s death to a
car bombing that killed three policemen in Gori, the city nearest to
South Ossetia, earlier this week. Shalamberidze pointed the finger at
“outside forces” in remarks clearly aimed at Russia.

Deadly fighting ripped through South Ossetia last summer, after local
separatists took offense at Saakashvili’s vows to bring the province
back under Tbilisi’s control. Zhvania in recent months was pursuing a
negotiated solution.

It was unclear when a new prime minister would be named, but topping the
speculation of likely candidates was Defense Minister Irkaly
Okruashvili, a strong personality like Saakashvili.

Zhvania’s funeral was scheduled for Sunday.

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Aide to dead Georgian PM commits suicide: official

Agence France Presse
02/04/2005

TBILISI, Feb 4 (AFP) – An aide to Georgian prime minister Zurab Zhvania,
who died apparently after breathing toxic fumes leaked by a faulty
heater, committed suicide late Friday, an interior ministry spokesman said.

The aide, 32-year-old Georgi Khelashvili, shot himself with a gun in his
Tbilisi apartment, the spokesman said.

Khelashvili was a member of Zhavania’s staff, working with the pardons
commission, the Mze television channel reported.

It was not yet clear whether Khelashvili’s suicide was linked to
Zhvania`s death.

Zhvania, Georgia’s widely respected prime minister seen as the driving
force behind market-oriented economic reform in the restive Caucasus
republic, died early Thursday.

The 41-year-old prime minister was found by his bodyguards slumped over
a table in an apartment on the outskirts of Tbilisi, and appeared to
have succumbed to inadequately ventilated carbon monoxide fumes from a
heater.

The body of another local Georgian official, Raul Yusupov, was found
dead on the floor in another room in the apartment. There were no signs
of foul play, and officials quickly quashed suspicions that the deaths
could have been anything but accidental.

News of Zhvania`s death sent shock waves through Georgia and President
Mikhail Saakashvili, acting in line with the constitution, dismissed the
entire Zhvania government, though its members were to remain in place on
what is technically an interim basis pending confirmation of a new
government.

Saakashvili announced that he would take over Zhvania`s duties until a
new government was installed. He was expected to name a new prime
minister before February 10

Zhvania was a father of three, who entered political life as an ally of
veteran Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze but later switched his
allegiance to Saakashvili, becoming himself a leading figure in the 2003
“rose revolution” that ousted Shevardnadze and swept the US-educated
Saakashvili to power.

His appointment last year as prime minister was a power-sharing
arrangement that placed chief responsibility for introducing sweeping
economic reforms in Georgia with the prime minister. Analysts said the
reform process would be slowed as a result of Zhvania`s death.

GEORGIAN GOVERNMENT STRESSES STABILITY AS SEARCH FOR NEW PRIME
MINISTER BEGINS

Eurasia Insight

EurasiaNet.org
2/04/05

By Elizabeth Owen

The search for a replacement for Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania, who died
February 3 of carbon-monoxide poisoning, is underway. Political analysts
in Tbilisi say there is `no obvious candidate’ that can match Zhvania’s
technocratic skills.

President Mikheil Saakashvili is expected to nominate a replacement for
prime minister by February 10. A state funeral for Zhvania will be held
at the newly constructed Holy Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi on February
6. Saakashvili’s cabinet, meeting in a late-night session February 3,
reportedly considered several prime ministerial candidates, the Civil
Georgia website reported. While most political figures continue to
emphasize the difficulty of replacing the prime minister, some Georgian
media outlets have speculated on the leading contenders. In its February
4 edition, for example, the daily Rezonansi reported that the top
candidates to head the government included Defense Minister Irakli
Okruashvili, State Minister for European Integration Giorgi Baramidze,
State Minister for Economic Reform Issues Kakha Bendukidze and
Parliament Speaker Nino Burjanadze.

Few analysts in Tbilisi appeared to put much faith in such reports. `You
can’t take the stupid speculations of the Georgian media seriously,’
said Levan Ramishvili, director of the Liberty Institute. Ramishvili
also dismissed reports of a potential cabinet split prior to Zhvania’s
death.

Ramishvili is just one of many political analysts in Tbilisi who
emphasize that Georgia lacks a natural successor to Zhvania, who
possessed the most political and administrative experience of any member
of Saakashvili’s reformist administration.

Devi Khechinashvili, president of the Partnership for Social
Initiatives, a public policy think tank, contended that one government
leader who could at least replicate Zhvania’s independence is
Bendukidze, who oversees economic reforms. An influential businessman,
Bendukidze returned last year to his native Georgia after nearly a
decade in Russia. During his tenure in 2004 as economics minister,
Bendukidze’s proved an effective policy planner, but his advocacy of an
aggressive privatization campaign generated considerable controversy.
`He has no network here, he is a guy by himself, he has power by
himself, and he can push things through, but he will have no political
ambitions,’ said Khechinashvili.

Georgian newspaper reports have also focused on Defense Minister
Okruashvili as a leading candidate to replace Zhvania. Though
Khechinashvili agreed that Okruashvili’s close ties to the president
could enhance his chances, he expressed doubt that the 31-year-old
defense minister, often portrayed as the most radical member of the
Saakashvili administration, would accept the post of prime minister if
nominated.

`His [current] position is very powerful, and he is concentrated on a
main priority of this government [modernization of the military
according to North Atlantic Treaty Organization norms]. So what is the
rationale [for him] to deal with social or economic issues right now?’
Khechinashvili said. `It is much easier to upgrade the military than it
is the social sphere or economy.’

Ultimately, how the government navigates the transfer of power to a new
prime minister will prove critical to the reform process, both analysts
said. The most immediate impact of Zhvania’s death will be on the speed
of reforms, Ramishvili said. `We have to revise the division of powers
between the president and the prime minister. The president will have to
take on more strategic and tactical responsibilities to make sure that
the government continues on with reforms,’ Ramishvili said. With Zhvania
gone, the powers of the ruling party could become more concentrated,
added Khechinashvili, but how that will affect the quality of reforms is
unknown.

With the country still in shock over Zhvania’s passing, government
leaders remain intent on projecting an image of stability. Foreign
Minister Salome Zourabichvili announced that she, along with
Saakashvili, who has assumed much of Zhvania’s responsibilities on an
interim basis, would fulfill all of Zhvania’s scheduled appointments in
the coming days, the Russian agency Regnum.ru reported. Top government
ministers, meanwhile, stressed in televised statements that key
political and economic policies would not change.

Authorities also sought to reassure Georgians that Zhvania’s death was
accidental. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has agreed to help
Georgian investigators, and will perform `biological and chemical tests’
to determine `the exact cause’ of Zhvania’s death, Rustavi-2 television
channel reported February 4.

The circumstances surrounding Zhvania’s death have prompted various
conspiracy theories among Georgians. For example, as news of Zhvania’s
death was still spreading, Alexander Shalamberidze, a member of
parliament, claimed publicly that Russia was behind both the recent
car-bombing in Gori and Zhvania’s death, and that the two events were
linked. Russian diplomats have adamantly denied involvement in the two
incidents. Meanwhile, Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili and
General Prosecutor Zurab Adeishvili dismissed rumors of foul play.

To downplay speculation about the cause of Zhvania’s death, Merabishvili
and Adeishvili showed Georgian journalists late February 3 a one-minute
video tape with footage from the apartment where Zhvania and his friend,
Raul Usupov, the deputy governor of the Kvemo Kartli region, were found.
Both men were shown stretched out on the floor of Usupov’s apartment
after artificial respiration had been unsuccessfully performed, the
Civil Georgia website reported.

Editor’s Note: Elizabeth Owen is EurasiaNet.org’s regional news
coordinator in Tbilisi.

Iraq Wants Money Back; Annan Promises Action

Reuters
February 4, 2005

By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Iraq said it wanted its money back from the
scandal-tainted U.N. oil-for-food program Friday as Secretary-General
Kofi Annan vowed to get to the bottom of wrongdoing by U.N. staff.

“Huge sums of money which should have served the needs of the Iraqi
people who were suffering at that time — a lot of these resources were
squandered and misspent,” said Iraq’s U.N. ambassador, Samir Sumaidaie.

Iraq, he said, should at minimum not have to pay for the independent
probe set up by the United Nations from remaining oil-for-food funds.
The inquiry panel has spent $30 million so far, with the approval of the
Security Council.

A key report by Paul Volcker, the former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman
appointed by Annan to probe the $67 billion program, found that the
director of the plan, Benon Sevan, helped steer oil contracts to a
relative of former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

The report does not accuse any U.N. officials of getting bribes. But it
says Sevan received $160,000 from an aunt in Cyrus, who has since died
and had few resources.

“We are as determined as everyone to get to the bottom of this. We do
not want this shadow to hang over the U.N.,” Annan said as he arrived at
headquarters.

Annan said U.N. officials would be disciplined and that if criminal acts
were committed, diplomatic immunity would be lifted. He said he was
consulting with lawyers on how to do this, as Sevan, who has denied he
received as much as a penny, has retired and is on $1 a year retainer

Among other questionable deals in the report was one in which another
U.N. official, Joseph Stephanides, colluded with a former British U.N.
ambassador so that Lloyd’s Register Inspection Ltd. could get a
lucrative contract.

The report showed that if the humanitarian program were audited more
thoroughly, it might have uncovered the cheating by Saddam Hussein’s
government. Most of his skimming, which some estimates put as high as $8
billion, was earned by illegal oil sales outside the program, some of
them permitted by the council.

DUBIOUS CHOICES

Investigators questioned Boutros-Ghali for choosing the Banque Nationale
de Paris, now known as BNP-Paribas, to handle the program’s account. He
did so after council members asked him to select a bank but was
criticized for asking Iraq its preference.

He was in office in 1996 when the program was negotiated and the Volcker
report alleged that Stephanides interfered in the awarding of contracts.

But there are no allegations Boutros-Ghali deliberately undermined the
program.

The program began in December 1996 and ended in November 2003, after the
United States overthrew Saddam Hussein. Iraq was allowed to sell oil to
buyers of its choosing and contract for food, medicine and other
necessities to ease hardships caused by U.N. sanctions, imposed in mid-1990.

Volcker said his 240-page report was preliminary and that the final one
would be produced in June. He said he may have another interim report to
deal with the alleged role of Annan’s son, who had worked in West Africa
for Cotecna, another Swiss company that replaced Lloyd’s in 1998 to
inspect goods.

The Iraqi ambassador said the United Nations received $1.14 billion to
administer the program and wanted to see how much actually reached its
destination or was squandered by outside contractors working for the
world body.

“The question arises whether the secretariat is subject to its own
political culture, which tends to subvert the will of the Security
Council,” said Sumaidaie. “This is serious.”

But he avoided blaming the Security Council, which had to approve
contracts and whose key members were deadlocked in dealing with any
improprieties on Iraq.

The U.S. Congress has initiated several investigations as has the U.S.
Attorney’s office.

Sen. Richard G. Lugar, the Republican chairman of the Foreign Relations
Committee, said that “part of the blame for the current imbroglio lies
with the U.N.” but that one had to recognize that council members,
including the United States “must also answer questions as to why they,
too, did not pay greater scrutiny to this program.”

But U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde, an Illinois Republican, said the Volcker
report reinforced evidence of U.N. lapses in overseeing the program and
“even the most rudimentary standards of accountability.”

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Kevorkian gets out of prison for surgery

Detroit Free Press
Friday, February 4, 2005

BY AMBER HUNT MARTIN, FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Dr. Jack Kevorkian finally is out of prison — if only for a few weeks.

Kevorkian, the infamous assisted-suicide doctor convicted of poisoning a
man on national television, left his prison cell Thursday to undergo
bilateral hernia surgery, his lawyer said.

Mayer Morganroth, Kevorkian’s Southfield attorney, said his client was
given 10 minutes’ notice early Thursday that he’d be leaving for the
surgery. Morganroth didn’t know whether Kevorkian would go under the
knife Thursday or today.

“I’m really concerned,” Morganroth said. “His health is quite poor.”

In addition to the hernia, Kevorkian reportedly has hepatitis C, high
blood pressure, arthritis, a heart murmur, circulatory problems and the
beginning stages of cataracts in his eyes.

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‘Frank’ the tumor surgery successful

CNN.com
February 3, 2005

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) — A 9-year-old boy successfully
underwent surgery Wednesday to remove most of a brain tumor he
nicknamed “Frank,” and which was the subject of an online auction to
help raise money for medical bills.

“It really went very well. I’m thrilled,” said Dr. Hrayr Shahinian,
who performed the surgery at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s Skull
Base Institute in Los Angeles.

Cells from the tumor, which had been treated with chemotherapy and
radiation, will now be studied to determine if it is malignant.

David Dingman-Grover, of Sterling, Virginia., went into surgery around
10 a.m. at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said Frank Groff, spokesman
for the Institute. A little more than two hours later, he was awake
and talking, Shahinian said.

Shahinian said David’s oncologists must now decide whether to give him
one more round of chemotherapy. “We have to sit tight and wait to see
… is Frank dead?” he said.

The doctor said he was able to remove nearly all the tumor, but that
some scar tissue in the area may still contain traces of it. He said
David would likely be discharged Thursday.

The boy was diagnosed in 2003 with embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma. A
grapefruit-sized tumor was impinging on his optic nerves and carotid
arteries, causing blindness and headaches.

The size and location of the tumor made it impossible for doctors to
take out, according to his mother’s ad on eBay.

Chemotherapy and radiation shrank it to the size of a peach pit,
restoring his vision, but there were side effects. For a while he
couldn’t walk or eat and had to be fed through a tube, his mother
said.

David named his tumor after Frankenstein’s monster, who scared him
until he dressed up as the fictional character for Halloween. His
parents auctioned off a bumper sticker reading “Frank Must Die” on
eBay to raise money for his treatment.

RFE/RL Georgia: Zhvania’s Death Likely To Affect Balance Of Forces In
Government
Friday, 04 February 2005

By Jean-Christophe Peuch

Zurab Zhvania, the Georgian prime minister who died yesterday in an
apparent gas poisoning accident, was generally viewed as a stabilizing
element in the youthful team that took the reins of power 15 months ago.
Some analysts believe his sudden death is likely to alter the balance of
forces in the government of President Mikheil Saakashvili in favor of
its more radical elements. But would that also affect Georgia’s policy
toward its separatist republics?

Prague, 4 February 2005 (RFE/RL) — In the hours that followed the news
of Zhvania’s death, Georgian officials worked hard to dismiss concerns
the sudden loss of the government head would affect the work of the
country’s leadership.

Speaking to reporters at the end of a second emergency government
meeting yesterday, Interior Minister Ivane Merabishvili attempted to
project an air of calm.

“The Interior Ministry is continuing work at its usual pace,” he said.
“The situation in the country is under our control, and I would not
advise criminal groups to grow bolder. Just today, 14 criminals were
arrested in Tbilisi alone.”

Foreign Minister Salome Zurabishvili, State Minister for Economic
Affairs Kakha Bendukidze, and Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili
conveyed a similar message: Everything is business as usual.

But at an earlier emergency cabinet meeting, Saakashvili hinted at
potential discord, as he solemnly called upon his ministers to remain
united and “support each other.”

Later in the day, at a memorial ceremony in Tbilisi’s Holy Trinity
Cathedral, Saakashvili said he would temporarily assume the leadership
of the government and sent his team a strongly worded warning.

“It is very important that we stick to the normal pace of life and
normal working practices, that we do not allow any breaches of
discipline to occur,” he said. “I want to state categorically that
everyone who will be found in breach of discipline will be held
accountable in accordance with the existing regulations.”

Georgian and foreign experts generally agree that Zhvania’s death is
likely to create a void in the Georgian leadership and that the absence
of the prime minister may have far-reaching consequences for the
cohesiveness of the ruling team.

Both Zhvania and Saakashvili had repeatedly said their team remained as
closely knit as it had been at the time of President Eduard
Shevardnadze’s ouster 15 months ago.

But tensions arose last month (4 January), when Okruashvili publicly
accused several Defense Ministry officials of embezzlement and demanded
their immediate arrest.

The controversy was swiftly glossed over. But some of the officials
targeted by Okruashvili had been appointed by Gela Bezhuashvili and
Giorgi Baramidze, his two predecessors at the head of the Defense
Ministry — who were also proteges of Zhvania. This sparked speculation
that there was infighting between so-called “radical” and “moderate”
elements in the government.

Okruashvili — an established hard-liner who belongs to Saakashvili’s
inner circle of friends — took over the Defense Ministry from Baramidze
as a result of last December’s security shakeup that saw Merabishvili —
another close ally of the president — obtain the Interior Ministry post.

A number of analysts suggest Okruashvili has set his sights on the
premiership. Georgia’s “Rezonansi” newspaper today included the defense
minister in its list of potential successors to Zhvania.

Saakashvili’s choice for Georgia’s new head of government will be known
within a week. “Rezonansi” suggested the president may nominate a person
close to the late prime minister — a choice that would reassure
Georgia’s neighbors and foreign partners that political continuity will
be maintained. The daily added, however, that Zhvania’s successor could
prove little more than a transitional figure and that he — or she —
could be replaced after a few months.

Ghia Nodia chairs the Tbilisi-based Caucasian Institute for Peace,
Democracy and Development. In an interview with RFE/RL’s Tbilisi bureau
chief Tamar Chikovani, Nodia yesterday said Zhvania’s death could upset
the current, healthy balance between the government’s two main groups.

“It is true that this is what is generally expected,” Nodia says. “And
maybe this is what will happen. In any case, for those people that were
considered close to Zhvania, their influence is likely to decrease.
However, that does not mean that Zhvania’s cadres will be purged. Those
two teams used to be a single team before, and the fact that they
eventually became two distinct groups is due to the fact that Zhvania
was acting as a center of attraction. Now that this center of attraction
is gone, members of this group will exist as mere individuals because I
don’t think there is among them a single figure capable of maintaining
the unity of the team.’

Zhvania’s death has sparked concerns among South Ossetian and Abkhaz
leaders, who suspect Saakashvili may resort to military force in order
to restore Georgia’s territorial integrity.

There are particular worries in South Ossetia about Okruashvili, whom
separatists blame for triggering a series of armed clashes last summer
while he was interior minister.

Concerns about the consequences of Zhvania’s death have also been heard
in Russia, which supports both secessionist governments.

The chairman of the Russian Duma’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Konstantin
Kosachev, yesterday said he feared a possible resumption of the Abkhaz
and South Ossetian separatist wars of the early 1990s.

“I met with President Saakashvili last week in Strasbourg, and in the
course of the private meeting we had together, he once again assured me
he was determined to solve these conflicts through political, and not
military, means,” Kosachev said. “But how autonomous he is in his
intentions, or to what extent he is under the influence of the hawks
that we know for sure exist in his entourage — we know them all —
remains to be seen.’

But Nodia says Zhvania’s death is unlikely to substantially affect
Georgia’s approach in solving its separatist conflicts — especially
that with South Ossetia.

“I don’t think there will be any particular problems on this issue
because both sides have always been aware of this kind of traditional
game between the ‘good cop’ and the ‘bad cop’ in which Saakashvili would
issue radical statements and Zhvania follow up with some conciliatory
steps,” Nodia says. “This is how it worked with [Ajar leader] Aslan
Abashidze, and this is the way it’s working now with [South Ossetian
leader Eduard] Kokoity.”

Nodia says in this way, too, Zhvania’s death is likely to create a void
that will be difficult to fill.

“It will be relatively hard for Saakashvili to find a political figure
with whom he can have the same distribution of tasks as he had with
Zhvania,” Nodia concludes.

Conflicts Cited in Iraq Oil Program

The Washington Post
Friday February 4, 2005

By Colum Lynch, Washington Post Staff Writer

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 3 — The former director of the U.N. oil-for-food
program had serious conflicts of interest that violated the integrity of
the world body and helped undermine economic sanctions against Iraq,
U.N.-appointed investigators reported Thursday.

Benon Sevan repeatedly sought — and received — from Iraqi officials
the rights to purchase millions of barrels of discounted oil while he
was running the program, and then misled investigators about his
relationship with an Egyptian national who sold those rights for $1.5
million in profits, the inquiry found.

The findings are the first to come from a panel appointed by U.N.
Secretary General Kofi Annan to investigate allegations that the $64
billion oil-for-food program was corrupt and mismanaged. Those
allegations have led to calls for Annan’s resignation by some members of
Congress and have spurred probes by five congressional committees.
Those, like the probe by the United Nations, are continuing.

In its preliminary report Thursday, the U.N.-appointed panel, led by
former Federal Reserve chairman Paul A. Volcker, also said that former
secretary general Boutros Boutros-Ghali was one of a few U.N. officials
who improperly helped steer contracts related to the program to selected
companies, and that two of his relatives were involved in the sale of
the oil allocated to Sevan.

Annan announced that he will pursue “disciplinary proceedings” against
Sevan and another U.N. official, Joseph Stephanides, who allegedly
helped the British government circumvent the United Nations’ competitive
bidding process to steer a contract to a British company. Stephanides
did not respond to a request for comment.

Annan said Volcker’s report contains “extremely troubling evidence of
wrongdoing” by Sevan.

“Should any of the findings of the inquiry give rise to criminal
charges, the United Nations will cooperate with national law enforcement
authorities pursuing those charges, and in the interests of justice I
will waive the diplomatic immunity of the staff member concerned,” Annan
said.

Annan noted that he is awaiting a report by Volcker probing possible
wrongdoing by Annan’s son, Kojo, who received $150,000 over a five-year
period from a Swiss company while it profited from the oil-for-food
program. The company maintains that Kojo Annan, who had been an
employee, had nothing to do with its work in Iraq and that the payments
were part of a standard agreement that would bar him from working for a
competitor.

Sevan’s attorney, Eric L. Lewis, said that “Mr. Sevan never took a
penny” from the program. Volcker’s commission has “succumbed to massive
political pressure and now seeks to scapegoat” Sevan, Lewis said.

“Mr. Sevan’s goal throughout the life of the program was to expedite the
pumping of oil in order to pay for urgently needed humanitarian
supplies” in Iraq, he said.

Some in Congress viewed Volcker’s report as vindication of their
criticism of the organization. Rep. Henry J. Hyde (news, bio, voting
record) (R-Ill.), chairman of the House International Relations
Committee, said the findings “reinforce evidence we have developed
detailing lapses in program oversight, management, fiscal controls and
an absence of even the most rudimentary standards of accountability.”

Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the Foreign Relations
Committee, said that “part of the blame for the current imbroglio lies
with the U.N.” but that “we must recognize that those nations who sat on
the Security Council . . . another during the life of the program — and
this includes the United States — must also answer questions as to why
they, too, did not pay greater scrutiny to this program.”

The United Nations established the program in December 1996 to allow
Iraq, which had been put under U.N. sanctions after its 1990 invasion of
Kuwait, to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian goods.

The program helped ease the plight of millions of undernourished Iraqis,
but it also provided the Iraqi government with at least $2 billion in
illicit kickbacks and payoffs, according to a report last year by CIA
adviser Charles A. Duelfer. Volcker said that the government received
far more in illicit funds from unauthorized oil sales outside the
oil-for-food program to Jordan, Turkey, Syria and Egypt.

Volcker’s report also said U.N. auditors had “inadequate” resources and
staff to conduct a proper investigation of the program, and it charged
that the United Nations violated its own competitive bidding practices
in 1996 when it selected three companies — BNP Paribas of France,
Saybolt Eastern Hemisphere BV of the Netherlands and Lloyd’s Register
Inspection Ltd. of Britain — to monitor Iraq’s trade.

Boutros-Ghali, of Egypt, acting on the instructions of the Iraqi
government, helped steer a banking contract to hold Iraqi’s oil revenues
to BNP, the report said. “When provided with the short list, he
contacted the government of Iraq and asked for its choice,” the report
said. “Apparently the Government of Iraq indicated a preference for BNP,
and the secretary general acquiesced.”

Boutros-Ghali could not be reached at a number in Paris provided by the
United Nations.

Volcker said the “most disturbing finding” is that Sevan solicited oil
for a small company headed by an Egyptian relative of Boutros-Ghali’s. A
brother-in-law of Boutros-Ghali “was a likely intermediary” between the
two men, the report said.

Shortly after he was appointed to run the oil-for-food program in
October 1997, Sevan championed an Iraqi initiative to allow Iraq to use
its oil profits to buy $300 million worth of spare parts to repair its
oil infrastructure. Two days after the U.N. Security Council adopted the
proposal in June 1998, Sevan traveled to Baghdad and asked Iraq’s oil
minister, Amir Rashid, to grant an associate rights to buy discounted
oil, the report said.

The Iraqi government granted the oil company headed by the Boutros-Ghali
relative rights to buy 1.8 million barrels of oil, which were sold for a
profit of $300,000.

The report continued with the following account:

Sevan subsequently made a similar request, but the Iraqis cut the oil
allocation to 1 million barrels to express disappointment with his
failure to counter U.S. efforts to block the export of some spare parts.

Sevan returned to Iraq in the summer of 1999 with a fresh proposal to
expand the spare-parts arrangement. Within five days of his departure,
Iraq approved the rights to buy 2 million barrels of oil, which the oil
company sold for $500,000 in profits.

Volcker’s team has not proved that Sevan received money from the
company’s oil deals. Volcker is examining cash payments Sevan received
between 1999 and 2003 amounting to $160,000. Sevan has filed U.N.
financial disclosure forms saying the money came from his aunt, who died
last year after falling into an elevator shaft.

“Her lifestyle did not suggest this to be so,” the report said. “She was
a retired Cyprus government photographer living on a modest pension.”

“Mr. Sevan placed himself in a grave and continuing conflict of interest
situation,” the report concluded. “The Iraqi government, in providing
such allocations, certainly thought they were buying influence.”

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