STATEMENT ON BEHALF OF BENON V. SEVAN
More than a year and a half after Benon Sevan left the United States to return to his home country, the United States Attorney’s office has decided to use Mr. Sevan as a scapegoat and a distraction from the United States’ own massive failures and mismanagement in Iraq. Mr. Sevan ran a $64 billion program that delivered food, medicine and essential infrastructure to the Iraqi people under nearly impossible conditions. In the nearly four years since Mr. Sevan turned over the program’s assets to the Coalition Provisional Authority, the United States has done none of these things. Now the United States Government has repackaged the same discredited allegations made by the Volcker Committee-- that Mr. Sevan took some $144,000 in cash, funds that he fully reported as family gifts on his UN disclosure form beginning more than seven years ago. These allegations are not only trivial; they are without basis.
Benon Sevan has served the UN for forty years in some of the most difficult assignments in the world—including Afghanistan and Iraq as well as Angola, Burundi, Kosovo, Rwanda, Somalia and South Lebanon. Suicide bombers tried to kill him, blowing up his office in Baghdad and killing his dear friends and colleagues. Mr. Sevan ran the largest humanitarian program in UN history, a program that literally saved tens of thousands of innocent people from death by disease and starvation. Mr. Sevan rebuilt the Iraq infrastructure, including the oil fields, that had been devastated by nearly a decade of sanctions. Mr. Sevan confronted both the Iraqis and members of the Security Council without fear or favor. He turned over more than $10 billion to the United States in 2003, money that has effectively vanished and has not been accounted for since then. Mr. Sevan accounted for every penny of the $64 billion under his control.
It is important to note what the indictment does not charge. This indictment does not charge-- because it cannot—that Mr. Sevan ever took any action or failed to take any action other than in the best interests of the Oil- For-Food Programme and the United Nations. Apparently, however, the US Attorney has simply adopted the Volcker Committee’s unfounded conclusions. Mr. Sevan had fully accounted for and reported any payments he received beginning in 1999. The only acts referenced in the indictment by Mr. Sevan are two cash deposits, one of $5,000 in August 2001 and $1,200 in January 2002. Mr. Sevan fully disclosed all of his banking records as well as the fact that, throughout his career traveling for the United Nations, he made and withdrew such sums in cash frequently. The indictment also charges that surcharge payments were made by a certain Mr. Nadler, an acquaintance of Mr. Sevan, to Iraq. Mr. Sevan knows nothing about any of Mr. Nadler’s arrangements, but it was Mr. Sevan who brought reports of such surcharges being paid to the Saddam regime to the attention of the Security Council, as the internal UN documentation will substantiate.
It is ludicrous to contend that in 1999 Mr. Sevan disclosed fictitious gifts from his aunt on his forms in anticipation of misleading investigators eight years later. These same baseless allegations were made nearly two years ago, while Mr. Sevan still was working for the UN. No action was taken. Instead the US Government has waited nearly two years to issue a ceremonial charge long after Mr. Sevan’s retirement and return to his home country. There is no doubt that there has been financial fraud and ineptitude by the United States in Iraq on an unprecedented scale, which has significantly contributed to the crisis in Iraq. Instead of focusing on the devastating wrongdoing in Iraq, the US Government has chosen to focus instead on fully disclosed family gifts from a deceased relative. Mr. Sevan is being used to distract attention from the political and humanitarian disaster in Iraq from which the world will not soon recover.
- Eric L. Lewis Baach Robinson & Lewis, PLLC Counsel to Mr. Sevan Contact: eric.lewis@baachrobinson.com 202/833 8900
RA PRESIDENT PAID PRIVATE VISIT TO RUSSIA
By Nana PetrosianYesterday, RA President Robert Kocharian met with Russian president Vladimir Putin. The parties discussed the situation in Armenia, particularly, the coming elections and the energy issues concerning ...RA PRESIDENT ROBERT KOCHARIAN RECEIVES CHRISTIAN STROHAL, OSCE REPRESENTATIVE
Today, RA President Robert Kocharian has received today the Director of OSCE Office for Democratic Institutes and Human Rights, Ambassador Christian Strohal. RA President’s press-service informed ...GERMANY DEMANDS PUNISHMENT FOR RECOGNITION OF HOLOCAUST
By Nana PetrosianGermany is aimed to achieve punishment for denial of Hallacaust in all EU member states. This is the suggestion of Angela Merkel, German Chancellor. Italian La Republica informed about this. The Great ...AFRICAN AMERICAN CANDIDATE CALL FOR REMEMBERING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
By Petros KeshishianThe next US President may be an African-American. In particular, Senator Barak Obama, who is going to run for the next presidential elections, promisses "to totally change the policy of America." ...THE ARMY OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH IS READY FOR ACING NATURAL DISASTERS
By Kim Gabrielian, StepanakertIn connection with the forest fires on the Azerbaijan-Karabakh frontline the OSCE mission conducted a monitoring of the area and qualified them as a "natural disaster". Azerbaijani authorities ...HAIGAZIAN UNIVERSITY RECEIVES A DELEGATION FROM THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (USA)
By Mira Yardemian,Public relations Director
Beirut, Lebanon (17/01/07)- During their solidarity tour with Lebanon and the local church, Haigazian University represented by its President and a number of colleagues, received Rev. Dr. Clifton Kirkpatrick, ...STATEMENT ON BEHALF OF BENON V. SEVAN
Eric L. Lewis Baach Robinson & Lewis, PLLC Counsel to Mr. Sevan Contact: eric.lewis@baachrobinson.com 202/833 8900More than a year and a half after Benon Sevan left the United States to return to his home country, the United States Attorney’s office has decided to use Mr. Sevan as a scapegoat and a distraction ...
EUROPEAN GREEN CARD RESEMBLING AMERICAN ONE LIKELY TO BE ISSUED SOON
By Aghavni HaroutiunianROBERT MENENDEZ AGAIN PLACES HOLD ON HOAGLAND’S NOMINATION
By Aghavni HaroutiounianGERMANY DEMANDS PUNISHMENT FOR RECOGNITION OF HOLOCAUST
By Nana PetrosianGERMAN COMMUNISTS PROTEST AGAINST DENYING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
By Aghavni HaroutiunianU.S. DIPLOMAT SAYS WASHINGTON WANTS RAILWAY CONNECTING TURKEY WITH AZERBAIJAN TO RUN THROUGH ARMENIA
L.A. TIMES ARTICLE ON AMB. EVANS’ DISMISSAL RAISES IMPORTANT ISSUES
By Harut Sassounian, Publisher, The California CourierHAIGAZIAN UNIVERSITY RECEIVES A DELEGATION FROM THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (USA)
By Mira Yardemian,Public relations DirectorTWO BILLS ON RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AT US CONGRESS AND NORTH DAKOTA
By Aghavni HaroutiunianTHE ARMY OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH IS READY FOR ACING NATURAL DISASTERS
By Kim Gabrielian, StepanakertDRAFT RESOLUTION ON RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN OTTOMAN TURKEY TO BE PRESENTED IN US CONGRESS NEXT WEEK
- 1830 Following Sultan Mahmood's decree and the advice of the French, British, and Russian ambassadors, the Armenian Catholics in Turkey were given a Patriarchate and their own administrative organization.
- 1888 Birth, in Constantinople, of the actor Vahram Papazyan. He is considered to have no equal in the Armenian theater.
- 1906 Birth of composer Ashot Satian. He died in 1958.
- 1911 Birth of theater personality Gevorg Ashughyan.
- 1990 Start of hostilities between Armenian and Azeri Turkish forces near Raskh.
- 2001 The French Senate recognizes the 1915 Genocide of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.
ARMENIAN NEWS
INTERACTIVE NEWS
INFORMATION
MY ARMTOWN
How to quit smoking?
How to write in Armenian on Windows XP?
All materials published on this website are taken from open sources and are copyrighted by their respective owners. You cannot reproduce or copy any materials published on armtown.com without written consent of original copyright holder. If you want to remove any material, please send us an email with proof of ownership/copyright and your material will be removed immediately. All materials published for information purposes only.