March 9, 2003	Sunday	Muharram 5, 1424

LONDON: Film director Richard Attenborough’s role as a Unicef ambassador came under scrutiny on Friday after he appeared to try to persuade Nelson Mandela to accept a charitable donation from the controversial food giant Nestle in exchange for a photo opportunity.

Officials from the United Nations Children’s Fund will be speaking to the film director and philanthropist about his extraordinary meeting with Mr Mandela, which was captured in a BBC documentary.

During the meeting, Lord Attenborough seemed to be lobbying on behalf of the Swiss company, which has been criticised for pushing powdered baby milk on to mothers in developing countries and was attacked earlier this year for seeking US dollars six million from Ethiopia’s cash-strapped government. Health campaigners expressed anger at the scenes and are calling on him to consider his position.

Despite claiming a close knowledge of Nestle in the programme, Lord Attenborough insisted he was not lobbying on the company’s behalf and had not been paid by it. He said his remarks in the documentary, shown on BBC on Wednesday, were taken out of context.

In the film, ‘Mandela: The Living Legend’, Lord Attenborough was seen speaking with Mr Mandela in a suite of rooms at the Dorchester hotel in London about how the former president of South Africa could raise charitable funds.

Lord Attenborough tells Mr Mandela: “I know that if you said, ‘I want more money’, knowing Nestle as I do, if [you] said I wanted another half million or another whatever it is ... you would have it like that [clicks fingers].”

Turning to Mr Mandela’s assistant, Lord Attenborough goes on: “They [Nestle] are so desperate to reinstitute themselves in South Africa, to be seen to have changed their philosophies and that they are now totally in favour of everything he [Mr Mandela] stands for.”

In a corridor outside the suite, Lord Attenborough again addresses Mr Mandela’s assistant. In lowered tones he says: “I will ask Nestle to ring you tomorrow morning. They are desperate to rectify their history and they hero worship him like millions of people.

“If he said, I’ll have my picture taken with you when you give me your assurance that you will so and so and so and so ...”

He then clicks his fingers again and says: “Quarter of a million, half a million, whatever.”

Patti Rundal, policy director at Baby Milk Action, one of Nestle’s fiercest critics, said: “Knowing Lord Attenborough’s good works, it was a shock to see him appearing to act as a messenger for Nestle. He could have been more wise. He was naive and he has to consider his position”.

In a letter printed in the London Daily Mail newspaper yesterday, written in response to a review of the programme, Lord Attenborough insisted: “I was not paid a fee by Nestle and was not lobbying on its behalf.” He said Mr Mandela had sought his advice about potential donors for his children’s charity in South Africa.

The film director said he reminded him Nestle had given a “significant sum” to Waterford, the mixed race school in Swaziland which Mr Mandela’s children attended. Lord Attenborough is a governor of the school.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.