NATO Leader Claes Resigns Amid Scandal

After a prolonged, unsuccessful battle to avoid prosecution on corruption charges in his native Belgium, NATO Secretary General Willy Claes resigned Friday, plunging the alliance into a burdensome search for a successor at a time when it can ill afford such a task.

Claes’ resignation came 12 hours after the Belgian Parliament voted 97-52 Thursday night to lift the immunity he enjoyed as a former government minister, thus clearing the way for an indictment against him on the corruption charges.

“Following yesterday’s vote in the Belgian Parliament, I have decided, with great regret, to resign,” he told a crowded news conference at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters here.

The accusations against Claes stem from a major Belgian political scandal in which foreign defense contractors allegedly made secret, illegal payments to Belgium’s Socialist Party-Flemish in the late 1980s. Claes was a leading Socialist figure and, as economics minister, helped negotiate the contracts.

But he has consistently maintained his innocence. In a long prepared statement heavy with bitterness and regret, Claes reiterated that he had been involved in no wrongdoing.

“On my word of honor as a Belgian minister of state, I have affirmed . . . that I was in no way involved in such fraudulent practices, nor did I condone them,” he said. “Moreover, at the time, I was not in any way aware of such bribes.”

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At one point, he called the resignation a “personal tragedy both for myself and my family.” But Claes said he took the step in “the interests of the alliance.”

Claes, 56, conveyed his decision first to ambassadors of NATO’s 16 member countries at an informal meeting in his office Friday morning before announcing his departure at an afternoon news conference.

He stepped down just over a year after he assumed the post, left vacant by the death of Manfred Woerner of cancer in August, 1994.

For the alliance, Claes’ departure signals the start of a disruptive, distracting search for a successor at a time when it is moving in new directions and as it attempts to define its role in a post-Cold War order.

That search is expected to be discussed among alliance leaders as heads of state from around the world gather in New York to mark the 50th anniversary of the United Nations next week.

Among those considered potential successors are former Danish Foreign Minister Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, former Dutch Premier Ruud Lubbers and the European Union’s external affairs commissioner, Hans van den Broek.

However, even among Europeans, there is little enthusiasm for any of these.

Some believe that Ellemann-Jensen may have been compromised by his country’s strong anti-nuclear stance, while Lubbers and Van den Broek have powerful opponents within the alliance.

In an editorial earlier this week, the Times of London newspaper argued that the job should go to retiring Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn.

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Historically, the secretary general’s job has gone to a European, while the senior military commander has been American.

In Washington, Secretary of State Warren Christopher praised Claes and said he learned of the resignation “with great regret.”

“We will be undertaking immediate consultations with our allies to identify a successor to Mr. Claes,” Christopher said in a statement read to reporters by a spokesman.

Neither Christopher nor other U.S. officials would disclose Washington’s preference for the post.

Until a successor is chosen, the alliance will be headed by Deputy Secretary General Sergio Balanzino, an Italian career diplomat who proved competent but colorless in leading NATO during the final months of Woerner’s illness.

Claes departs as NATO attempts to put together a peacekeeping force of 50,000 to 60,000 troops to police a possible political settlement in the Balkans. It would be the first such task ever undertaken by the alliance, and about 20,000 Americans are expected to be a part of the deployment.

While the alliance itself has agreed on the shape and mission of this force, delicate negotiations were launched just Thursday--in Claes’ absence--to bring in Russian troops as well.

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The issue of NATO’s eventual enlargement to take in former Communist nations of Central and Eastern Europe is also in a crucial phase.

The highly controversial move, strenuously opposed by Russia, is considered vital to NATO’s long-term future. It is expected to dominate the agenda of the next meeting of alliance foreign ministers, planned for early December.

Entangled in these issues, and in virtually every move NATO now makes, is the overall challenge of building a constructive relationship with its old adversary, Russia.

“It’s a difficult time for the alliance, and the members will want a decision quickly, probably in the next week or two,” noted John Chipman, director of the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies. “It may be difficult with Nunn, but he should be considered.”

Although Claes was dogged for much of the year by the scandal that eventually brought him down, and also by committing periodic blunders, such as an early reference that implied Islamic fundamentalism was NATO’s new enemy, officials and diplomats at NATO headquarters Friday said Claes had also been effective in important areas.

He was praised especially for his role last summer in extricating the alliance from the crippling grip of U.N. decision makers in Bosnia, who, for the better part of two years, blunted any strong NATO attempt to protect Sarajevo and other “safe areas” from Bosnian Serb attack.

In August, Claes played a key role in streamlining the U.N.-NATO command structure, enabling alliance aircraft to attack Serb positions in a meaningful way for the first time. Those attacks restored NATO’s battered credibility and helped force the warring parties to the peace table.

In addition to ending Claes’ tenure as NATO secretary general, the scandal is also likely to end his career as one of the dominant political figures of post-World War II Belgium.

He became a government minister at age 33 and served in every Belgian Cabinet since 1971, except for a three-year period in the mid-1970s when his party was out of power.