IOC BANISHES ITS SULLIED SIX; SAMARANCH GETS VOTE OF CONFIDENCE, HINTS AT RETIREMENT.

Byline: Associated Press 

One by one, the six accused International Olympic Committee members filed into a conference hall Wednesday and pleaded their case before their peers.

Some 90 minutes later, in what delegates described as a ``painful and harrowing'' exercise, all six were expelled.

The IOC completed an unprecedented purge of its own ranks but backed president Juan Antonio Samaranch with an overwhelming vote of confidence and two rousing ovations during a special session wrought by the worst scandal in its 105-year history.

Despite the support, Samaranch hinted he might leave office before the end of his term in 2001.

The six expelled members were Agustin Arroyo of Ecuador, Zein El Abdin Gadir of Sudan, Jean-Claude Ganga of the Republic of Congo, Lamine Keita of Mali, Sergio Santander of Chile and Paul Wallwork of Samoa.

A total of 10 members have been banished or have resigned after being linked to $1.2 million in cash payments and other vote-buying inducements from Salt Lake City's winning bid for the 2002 Winter Games. Ten others have been censured or warned about their actions.

Several of the expelled members claimed they were scapegoats.

``I am the proverbial sacrificial lamb,'' Wallwork said. ``Perhaps I was led to the slaughterhouse.''

``I do believe the public and the press wanted to have heads knocked down,'' Arroyo said. ``Mine happens to be in the way.''

Santander said: ``It happened as a purely political act. It probably occurred because Chile was such a small country.''

Olympic leaders said the expulsions marked a major turn in restoring the agency's credibility and the luster of the five rings.

But a leading U.S. congressional critic wasn't completely satisfied.

``Expelling members does nothing to address the utter lack of transparency and accountability in IOC processes,'' said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. ``What we must see are concrete reforms.''

With corporate sponsors also demanding reforms, Samaranch and his deputies said the house-cleaning was just the beginning and that the IOC would carry out long-term changes.

``We're nearing the end of the beginning,'' said IOC vice president Dick Pound, echoing Winston Churchill. ``We have a fair amount of work ahead of us. This was a good start. Without having done it, it would have been hard to move forward.''

Today, the IOC is expected to appoint an independent ethics commission, change the selection process for the 2006 Winter Games and set up a special reform panel - including outside experts - to study structural changes.

``From the outset we have been telling the IOC to go deep and go wide in their investigations and it appears they are now doing that,'' said John LaBella, a spokesman for Kodak, one of the Olympic sponsors.

CAPTION(S):

6 Photos

PHOTO (1) WALLWORK

(2) SANTANDER

(3) KEITA

(4) GANGA

(5) GADIR

(6) ARROYO