Facing Charges, NATO Head Steps Down

The NATO Secretary General, Willy Claes, resigned bitterly today, a day after his former Belgian parliamentary colleagues voted to let prosecutors charge him in a bribery scandal over defense contracts signed when he was a Belgian Cabinet minister in the late 1980's.

Angrily insisting that he was "totally innocent," Mr. Claes said in Brussels this afternoon that he was resigning for the good of the 16-nation alliance after eight months of trying to do a difficult job and defend himself at the same time. "Nobody can deny that I no longer have enough credibility to insure the leadership of the alliance," he said. "Is there another word than 'political murder?' "

On both sides of the Atlantic, governments agreed that Mr. Claes (pronounced klahss) had done the right thing by leaving. And they began looking for a successor to help guide the alliance through the complexities of taking on a huge peacekeeping mission in Bosnia and taking in new members from Central Europe without reviving the divisions of the cold war.

"On paper, the NATO Secretary General has no real power except to conduct meetings," one diplomat said, "but the reality is that he plays a key part in the decision making and, if he is good, he can influence things enormously."

Francois Heisbourg, a former director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, said the Secretary General could "suggest compromises, float ideas, and influence the debate and direction of the alliance."

"This is very important today, because NATO still doesn't have a clue about its reason for being in the wake of the cold war," Mr. Heisbourg said.

Mr. Claes's predecessor was Manfred Worner of Germany, who died of cancer in August 1994.

Mr. Worner pushed for NATO to use air power to bolster United Nations peacekeeping forces in Bosnia. Mr. Claes, with strong support and encouragement from the United States, shepherded the alliance into crucial decisions to lay out a blueprint for future expansion into Eastern Europe and to plan a 50,000-member peacekeeping force in Bosnia to replace the United Nations after a peace settlement is achieved.

His successor, diplomats say, will have the crucial task of helping to define a new security role for the alliance, and by implication for the United States, in what could be a highly unstable 21st-century Europe.

Most of the NATO leaders will be in New York City this weekend for ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary of the United Nations, but they are not expected to decide on a successor that soon.

No American has held the job since the alliance was formed in 1949, since American generals and admirals have always held its top military posts. Candidates from France and Spain, which are not full members of NATO's military structure, are also unlikely to be considered.

Diplomats say that former Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd of Britain could have the job in a minute, but he said today that he was not interested. "It may need some days to make sure they've got the best man or the best woman to do it," said Mr. Hurd, who only recently took a job with National Westminster Bank in London. His successor in the Foreign Office, Malcolm Rifkind, has also been mentioned as a possibility.

Defense Minister Volker Ruhe of Germany ruled himself out, and Chancellor Helmut Kohl said today, "No German candidate is available."

Former Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers of the Netherlands is in the running, but Mr. Kohl vetoed him last year as head of the European Union's executive Commission because of his less-than-enthusiastic attitude toward German unification, and NATO picks its civilian leaders by consensus.

Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland of Norway has been mentioned, but Norway does not belong either to the European Union or to its military arm, the Western European Union, and diplomats from other member countries say that probably rules her out.

Former Foreign Minister Uffe Ellemann-Jensen of Denmark, on the other hand, makes no bones about wanting the job. "The post as Secretary General is so important that I could not say no if there was a chance that I could get it," Mr. Ellemann-Jensen said in a statement.

Unlike members of Denmark's present Government, Mr. Ellemann-Jensen has not been vocally critical of France's resumption of underground nuclear testing in the Pacific, which could make him a compromise candidate acceptable to the French.

Mr. Claes was Belgium's Economic Affairs Minister in 1988 when his Dutch-speaking Socialist Party was accused of taking $1.72 million in kickbacks from the Italian aircraft manufacturer Agusta S.p.A. in exchange for agreeing to a $267-million contract to build 48 helicopters for the Belgian Army. Investigating magistrates from the Belgian High Court are also investigating charges that the French defense company Dassault paid a $2 million bribe to the party for a contract to modernize F-16 and Mirage jet fighters in 1989.

Prosecutors have indicated that they will charge Mr. Claes with corruption, fraud and forgery, because they say, he knew about the bribes but testified that he did not.

The investigations started after a former leader of the French-speaking branch of the Socialist Party was found slain in Liege in 1991. Three ministers from that party have since resigned as the scandal burgeoned, and a former chief of the air force committed suicide last March.

Mr. Claes appeared before the full Belgian Parliament on Thursday to defend himself, but members voted 97 to 52 to lift his parliamentary immunity from prosecution.

Secretary of Defense William J. Perry said today, "I believe that NATO will probably move very quickly and very effectively to restore new leadership." The post will be filled in the interim by Mr. Claes's Italian deputy, Sergio Balanzino.