Polish Soldiers in Iraq Suspected of Corruption

Five Polish soldiers and two civilians have now been arrested for their role in a scam around the awarding of reconstruction contracts in Iraq, where Poland heads a multinational force aiding the US-led stabilisation efforts.
The affair dates back to the detention of two Polish officers on their return from Iraq in early February. The two were caught smuggling $90,000 in cash, sparking speculation they had been involved in black market or other illegal activity.
Defence Ministry and army officials confirmed the arrests, but to date no details on the source of the money had been disclosed. The amount they were carrying is far more than the pair’s wages for their time in Iraq, and an audit of funds in the Camp Babylon international division showed no irregularities.
On Thursday, the daily Zycie Warszawy quoted unnamed sources as saying it is now clear the arrests related to construction contracts at Poland’s base in south-central Iraq.
The case is just the latest to involve Poland’s meagrely paid foreign peacekeepers. Last year, two soldiers returning from Middle East duties in the Golan Heights were arrested for tobacco and alcohol smuggling on the Syrian-Israeli border. When the first contingent returned from Iraq, a number of soldiers were caught trying to import large quantities of memorabilia. The biggest-bucks case since 1989, however, involved a group that tried to smuggle large quantities of narcotics back from the Balkans in the mid-1990s – inside armoured cars.
STEVEN MULLER