Iraq calls for halt to U.N. Gulf War compensation

[maddezmom]

GENEVA (Reuters) - Iraq on Tuesday called for ending a United Nations programme under which it pays compensation for damage from its 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the 1991 Gulf War, arguing debts should be settled bilaterally.
Iraqi deputy foreign minister Mohammed Hamud Bidan spoke to Reuters before addressing the governing council of the U.N. Compensation Commission, which uses five percent of Iraqi oil revenues for payouts.

"We suggest we stop the payments of five percent from oil revenues...it is too much for us. We think it is time now to stop and leave Iraq to negotiate directly with the states concerned," Bidan said.

It is the last council session scheduled to approve further payouts, although those already authorised will take decades to complete. The commission has paid out $19.2 billion (10.5 billion pounds) out of $52.1 billion of claims approved so far.

more: http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=770035§ion=news&src=rss/uk/worldNews

[Oversea Visitor]

1. Wonder how much US will have to pay

Iraq when this all get solved

[Monkie]

3. i just hope the plan isn't to "rapture" the planet to weasel out of it

oh and *kick*

[Monkie]

2. please note:James Baker/Albright/Carlyle consortium involved here

excellent 8 page expose in the nation by Naomi Klein on this subject with documentary evidence.
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041101&c=4&s=klein
" James Baker's Double Life: A Special Investigation"
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041101&s=bakerdocs
"The James Baker Documents"

its a long and complex piece but well worth reading if you wish to gain some insight into the level of corruption going on here.

[LiberalAndProud]

4. Iraq compensation payments decried

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/62B95F79-2699-4812-AA71-CB28CF2647A9.htm

-snip-
"Seventy per cent of Baghdad has been without water for ten days, a major health issue is developing, and yet the UN continues to punish ordinary people for an invasion they were not responsible for, extracting multi-billion dollar compensation payments.

"If anyone should be paying compensation, it should by the US paying money to the Iraqi people for immorally and illegal invading their country and destroying it on a massive scale", Green said.

"But what is truly sad is the lack of interest among Western media to take up this issue. We must stop this crime of making the poor and defenceless pay for someone else's crimes", she said.
-snip