Ethics Inquiry Sought in Zaire Assault Charges

The House Ethics Committee was asked Wednesday to investigate charges that Rep. Gus Savage (D-Ill.) sexually assaulted a Peace Corps volunteer while on an official trip to Zaire last March.

Three of Savage’s Democratic colleagues--Reps. Patricia Schroeder of Colorado, Matthew F. McHugh of New York and Barney Frank of Massachusetts--requested the ethics investigation, which means the congressional panel must inquire into the allegations.

“We believe that the accusation is sufficiently serious to justify your looking into it,” the lawmakers said in a statement.

Officials at the Peace Corps also said they were willing to seek disciplinary action against the Chicago Democrat but would not do so without the woman’s consent.

“The ball is in her court,” said one agency official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The Peace Corps worker, who has not been identified, claims that Savage repeatedly fondled her--despite her protests--for more than two hours in the back of a chauffeur-driven embassy car in Kinshasa, the capital of Zaire, on March 19, according to several government officials who confirmed an account originally published in the Washington Post.

Savage denied the charges.

“We were in a caravan of four or five cars,” he told reporters from Chicago television stations. “We made four or five brief stops and got out of the car and got back in. If there were any kind of abuse, then why would she keep getting back into the same car?”