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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Iraq Says UN Must Reduce Reparations Paid from Oil |
| 2004-05-18 |
| Tue, May 18, 2004 By Khaled Yacoub Oweis BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An Iraqi delegation will travel to the United Nations on Wednesday to demand full control of the country’s oil revenues and a cut in war reparations imposed on Iraq. "Iraq must have a say in the next U.N. resolution," Deputy Foreign Minister Hamid Bayati told Reuters on Tuesday. "We will negotiate on the basis that Iraq must be fully in charge of its resource wealth and the five percent of oil revenues we pay must be reduced further," he said in reference to reparations for the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Iraq has paid around $20 billion of reparations of an estimated $300 billion. A U.N. resolution a year ago reduced war reparations from 15 percent of oil proceeds to five percent. Bayati said Iraq should not be held accountable now for wars waged by Saddam Hussein in which the people had no say and for which they suffered and had paid enough already. Horseradish! Why should the remaining world foot the bill for Saddam’s thuggery? Iraq can be bled white for all I care. It will serve to discourage them from ever again considering any sort of regional aggression. Furthermore, I’d like to see some repayment of the United States for our costly campaign to liberate these sniveling ingrates. "Iraq seeks to cancel debt and reparations incurred by Saddam. The next sovereign government will be under domestic pressure to do the same," Bayati said six weeks before the U.S.-led occupiers are due to hand over formal sovereignty. Iraqi officials say the reparations, estimated to be largely owed to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, are unfair. They say these countries benefited by producing more oil when Iraq was prohibited from exporting any from 1990 to 1996 under an economic embargo. Ain’t free market economics a b!tch? Iraq exported 3.2 million barrels per day before the 1990 Gulf War, but exports are now down to 1.8 million bpd as the crippling embargo limited the country’s ability to maintain the infrastructure. Under last year’s U.N resolution, Iraq’s oil revenues are deposited in a Federal Reserve Bank of New York account controlled by the United States. This structure may need to be retained for a longer period until Iraq demonstrates the capacity for responsible leadership. The next Iraqi government is expected to have control of expenditures, but U.S. officials want an international board monitoring the accounts to remain in place. Iraqi crude oil sales since last year’s U.S.-led invasion reached more than $9 billion, which were deposited in the Development Fund for Iraq. |
| Posted by:Zenster |
| #11 Iraqis are complaining and complaining about the military occupation of their country. Let them pay and pay for their military occupation of Kuwait, so they don't forget about that. . |
| Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2004-05-18 6:14:27 PM |
| #10 Everyone has a good point. At one level, the Iraqui people were responsible for Saddam. At another level, cutting off reparations to Saudi Arabia (but not Kuwait), would be fit payback for their demanding that Bush Sr. not proceed to Baghdad. Another thing about this: The Iraquis are beginning to act on their own and making demands on their own, as an independent state would. Bravo to them for at least getting into the UN's face. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2004-05-18 5:57:20 PM |
| #9 #8 - Right on! |
| Posted by: eLarson 2004-05-18 5:25:30 PM |
| #8 Pay the reparations out of the billions stolen by UN members in the Oil-for-Palaces scandel; that should more than cover the debt. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2004-05-18 4:13:36 PM |
| #7 This is as much about the traditional rakeoff for Iraqi officals as anything. Control of the purse means that their retirement funds just went sky high. Right now the ministries are as much puppets of the Governing Council as anything. The Council is as filthy a bunch of scallywags and ne'er-do-wells as exists. They're in the council because we can keep an eye on them there. June 30 is approaching, and each one of them has a militia. |
| Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2004-05-18 3:42:39 PM |
| #6 Maybe the profits Kuwaiti businesses have made from doing biz in Iraq in the past year should partially offset this? Good point, A2U. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-05-18 3:28:17 PM |
| #5 Robert, your points are well made, but at what point does a country manage to absolve itself of any responsibility for the crimes of its government? There are leigons of Iraqis who also went along with Saddam's tryannical regime, kept it in place and profited from it. There needs to be some sort of accountability for this. That is what I'm trying to point out here. Not all Iraqis are victims in this situation. Also, Germany has paid out reparations to more than just the Jewish Holocaust victims. It is not as if Iraq is entirely without an ability to pay, unlike ravaged post-WWI Germany. In recent years Germany has paid out nearly 1.8 billion marks on the basis of special bilateral agreements concluded in 1991 and 1993 with Poland and three successor states of the former Soviet Union -- the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Belarus (White Russia) -- even though in 1953 Poland and the Soviet Union each renounced any further reparations payments from Germany. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-05-18 3:26:46 PM |
| #4 Maybe the profits Kuwaiti businesses have made from doing biz in Iraq in the past year should partially offset this? |
| Posted by: Anonymous2U 2004-05-18 3:26:33 PM |
| #3 You might want to look at history before you get all hepped up over the idea of reparations. That was part of the mistakes made in the Versailles Treaty, part of what led to the poverty and anger that led to WWII. Supposedly we learned our lessons, and instead of forcing Germany to pay reparations for war damage (as opposed to the Holocaust), we pumped money into their economy. That seems to have worked pretty well, at least so far. Sixty years since the last war started by Germany is better than twenty, no? You apparently would rather punish the people for the crimes of a tyrant and ignore the lessons of history. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-05-18 2:48:09 PM |
| #2 I understand this, Robert, but when all is said and done, Iraq must accept some of the consequences for offenses committed by their leadership, however much it was imposed upon them. There is no reason for the outside world to shoulder the entire financial burden instead. Iraq will have plenty of money from their oil production. It is only fair that some of this wealth serve to make reparations. For all their blather about "Arab unity" (one of my favorite oxymorons) and pan-Arab brotherhood, why isn't fabulously wealthy Saudi Arabia stepping up to the plate and forgiving Iraqi debt in a gesture of support for this newly liberated country? |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-05-18 2:22:38 PM |
| #1 Iraq can be bled white for all I care. That'll help them build a free country. Zenster -- the guy responsible for the crimes they're paying reparations for is in custody and facing trial. Let's not punish the innocent for his crimes. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-05-18 1:36:47 PM |