Kouchner attacked over African consultancies

France's FM Bernard Kouchner has been attacked for an alleged conflict of interest in earning huge sums from African governments. In a book due out Wednesday, French journalist Pierre Pean paints Kouchner as a lackey of U.S. neoconservatives and a wheeler-dealer who used his political influence to secure lucrative contracts from impoverished countries. Kouchner attacked over African consultancies The bulk of the criticism in "The World According to K." is leveled at Kouchner's policy positions on the bloody crises in Rwanda, the Balkans, the Middle East and Darfur -- positions with which Pean vehemently disagrees. But advance publicity for the book has focused on its account of Kouchner's business activities between 2002 and 2007, when he was out of government and earning a living as a private consultant on health policy. Two firms owned by close associates of Kouchner billed Gabon and Congo a total of EUR 4.6mm for reports the former health minister had written on reforming their health insurance systems. The bills were paid in stages and, Pean claims, some of the money was recovered after Kouchner was named France's foreign minister on May 18, 2007. Pean alleges that one of Kouchner's allies, Eric Danon, manager of the Imeda consultancy and France's then ambassador to Monaco, remained in contact with Gabon until September 2007 to demand payment of outstanding bills. But, while Kouchner did meet Gabon's President Omar Bongo in his official capacity during this period, the author offers no proof that the minister abused his public position to get a private debt paid. When details of these specific allegations were published in the French press last month, Kouchner's office issued a statement denouncing what it called "certain inexact allegations" in Pean's account. The minister insisted there was no conflict of interest in his relations with Bongo, and warned that he reserves the right to take legal action if the book contains defamatory accusations. Nevertheless, Pean's aggressive critique may pose a political problem for a much-loved politician who has thus far proved immune to scandal but now stands accused of betraying his humanitarian principles. "By abandoning these, the former Doctors Without Borders volunteer has hurt what is dearest to him: the image he wanted to project of himself, and which he will be, at this rate, the last to believe," Pean wrote. Polls consistently rank him as France's most popular politician, with an approval rating that stood last month at 71 percent, despite having abandoned the Socialist Party to join President Nicolas Sarkozy's right-wing cabinet. Outside France he is best known as a founder of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), the Nobel-prize winning medical aid agency, and as Kosovo's first United Nations administrator after its 1999 war. Kouchner insists his consultancy work in Africa was in keeping with his public efforts to improve health systems in the developing world, but the revelation of the sums of money involved is an embarrassment. "Bernard Kouchner, if he still has any honor, must seriously explain himself in front of public opinion," Socialist lawmaker Arnaud Montebourg declared on Tuesday, the eve of the book's publication. "These revelations about multiple conflicts of interest and financial matters in which the foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, is implicated, are at the very least serious offenses against public standards," he said. For his part, Pean makes no secret of the fact that his book was written as an attack on Kouchner, whom he accuses of siding with American interests to misrepresent the conflicts in Rwanda, Darfur and the former Yugoslavia. The front cover depicts Kouchner embracing former US president George W. Bush -- a hate figure for the French left - and inside Pean accuses the French official of glossing over atrocities by Washington's allies.

Kouchner attacked over African consultancies

The bulk of the criticism in "The World According to K." is leveled at Kouchner's policy positions on the bloody crises in Rwanda, the Balkans, the Middle East and Darfur -- positions with which Pean vehemently disagrees.

But advance publicity for the book has focused on its account of Kouchner's business activities between 2002 and 2007, when he was out of government and earning a living as a private consultant on health policy.

Two firms owned by close associates of Kouchner billed Gabon and Congo a total of EUR 4.6mm for reports the former health minister had written on reforming their health insurance systems.

The bills were paid in stages and, Pean claims, some of the money was recovered after Kouchner was named France's foreign minister on May 18, 2007.

Pean alleges that one of Kouchner's allies, Eric Danon, manager of the Imeda consultancy and France's then ambassador to Monaco, remained in contact with Gabon until September 2007 to demand payment of outstanding bills.

But, while Kouchner did meet Gabon's President Omar Bongo in his official capacity during this period, the author offers no proof that the minister abused his public position to get a private debt paid.

When details of these specific allegations were published in the French press last month, Kouchner's office issued a statement denouncing what it called "certain inexact allegations" in Pean's account.

The minister insisted there was no conflict of interest in his relations with Bongo, and warned that he reserves the right to take legal action if the book contains defamatory accusations.

Nevertheless, Pean's aggressive critique may pose a political problem for a much-loved politician who has thus far proved immune to scandal but now stands accused of betraying his humanitarian principles.

"By abandoning these, the former Doctors Without Borders volunteer has hurt what is dearest to him: the image he wanted to project of himself, and which he will be, at this rate, the last to believe," Pean wrote.

Polls consistently rank him as France's most popular politician, with an approval rating that stood last month at 71 percent, despite having abandoned the Socialist Party to join President Nicolas Sarkozy's right-wing cabinet.

Outside France he is best known as a founder of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), the Nobel-prize winning medical aid agency, and as Kosovo's first United Nations administrator after its 1999 war.

Kouchner insists his consultancy work in Africa was in keeping with his public efforts to improve health systems in the developing world, but the revelation of the sums of money involved is an embarrassment.

"Bernard Kouchner, if he still has any honor, must seriously explain himself in front of public opinion," Socialist lawmaker Arnaud Montebourg declared on Tuesday, the eve of the book's publication.

"These revelations about multiple conflicts of interest and financial matters in which the foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, is implicated, are at the very least serious offenses against public standards," he said.

For his part, Pean makes no secret of the fact that his book was written as an attack on Kouchner, whom he accuses of siding with American interests to misrepresent the conflicts in Rwanda, Darfur and the former Yugoslavia.

The front cover depicts Kouchner embracing former US president George W. Bush -- a hate figure for the French left - and inside Pean accuses the French official of glossing over atrocities by Washington's allies.