As the controversy around the Iraq Oil for Food Scandal grows, Mzansi Afrika offers a compilation of three stories.

The French and Russian positions taken on resolutions appear increasingly to hardly have been rooted in respect for international law or moral stance, but rather those positions might have been a cloak for darker intentions.

It also raises a paradox in Iraq itself, with the UN not the cure for Iraqi ills that many of its advocates claim it to be.

At a time when the American administration is increasingly considering backtracking on its earlier stances and encouraging the UN into Iraq, Iraqi’s themselves are now being made aware of the Oil for Food Scandal through international media. As a result their own respect and trust of the UN has dropped considerably.