PORTLAND – Interviews are under way in the investigation into steroid use in Major League Baseball, but there is no timeline on when the probe may be completed, former Sen. George Mitchell said Tuesday.

“We’ve begun the process,” said Mitchell, who was appointed by baseball Commissioner Bud Selig to lead the investigation. “A team of lawyers and investigators are in the process of conducting interviews. We’re going to follow the evidence wherever it leads.”

Mitchell’s comments came prior to a speech at the University of Southern Maine on globalization and its impact on America.

The former Senate majority leader has previously headed fact-finding peace missions in Northern Ireland and the Middle East. But he sees few similarities between baseball and those endeavors.

“They’re all important, but in both those cases people were dying,” he said.

Mitchell also downplayed criticism that there is a conflict for him to lead the probe since he is a director of the Boston Red Sox and chairman of The Walt Disney Co., the parent of ESPN, which is a national broadcast partner of baseball.

“As far as criticism goes, you get criticized if you do something and criticized if you don’t do something,” he said.