June 30, 2005

Mojtaba Kazazi, secretary of the UNCC Governing Council secretary, told a final news briefing that the awards made today: "is a very small fraction, 0.5% of the amount claimed." Independent arbitrators, backed by 50 technical experts, evaluated the complex claims and concluded that few proved quantifiable damage directly caused by Iraq. In a speech council Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammed Hamud Bidan said: "The [0.5%] outcome would serve as an excellent example of the degree of overstatement adopted by those states." Bidan had earlier called for a halt in the reparation payments but the Iraq proposal was ignored by the UNCC. Joe Sills, UNCC spokesman, told reporters there had been "no discussion" of Iraq's proposal, adding: "Our process is done and on the books. Whatever is done bilaterally is up to them."

In its 56th and final session of claims processing, the UNCC made awards of $367m on the remaining outstanding claims, the large part being $252m of F4 claims to Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. Jordan received the bulk of this ($162m).

This marks the completion of 12 years of claims processing at the UNCC and brings to an end the work of the panels of Commissioners, as a whole. Since the appointment of the first panels in 1993, over 2.68 million claims, seeking approximately $354bn in compensation, have been resolved by the various panels of Commissioners. Awards of approximately $52.5bn have been approved in respect of approximately 1.5 million of these claims, representing roughly 14.8% of the amount claimed. To date, approximately $19.2bn
billion has paid to governments and international organizations. Up to $200 million will be made available for distribution to successful claimants in July 2005. The Commission will continue its work, with a small secretariat, on payments of awards to claimants and a number of residual tasks. (abriviation of UNCC press release)

The Governing Council of the UNCC will hold its next regular meeting on 27-29 September [expect further protests by Jubilee Iraq...].

AFP quotes Geneva faster Jeff Leys: "What we see is a continued attempt by the international community to punish the Iraqi people for the crimes of Saddam Hussein in 1990 and 1991. But the people need to have the foot of war reparations removed from their neck. As long as these payments continue, we see no possibility for the Iraqi people to rebuild their country."

Al Jazeera interviews one of the Geneva fasters, Cathy Breen: "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. 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.

Kuwaiti political analyst Dr Ibrahim al-Hadban said there is not sympathy for the plight of Iraqi civilians in his country. "While the government may accept a delay in compensation, or maybe even a reduction in the amount of compensation awarded by the UN, many Kuwaitis suffered just as much in 1991. I expect the private sector in Kuwait and the civilian population may be less likely to listen to campaigners who seek to have compensation stopped."

Fifty protestors dressed as pirates beat drums and gongs and outside the Iraq Petrolem conference held in the Hilton Hotel in London today. "We are hoping to make us much noise as possible so they cannot make their nasty deals", a spokesman said. The protest was organised by Corporate Pirates, a London-based campaign group working to expose the corporate plunder of Iraq. The protest was organised in solidarity with the General Union of Oil Employees (GUOE) in Iraq. A leaflet handed out by the protestors claimed that, as in Africa, debt relief for Iraq is only granted in exchange for certain economic "conditionalities" such as privatisation. The G8 countries have burdened Iraq with a odious debt accrued by Saddam's tyranny. His debt is now likely to be used as leverage for the privatisation of Iraq's oil reserves.

June 29, 2005

A major multinational national company which has recieved compensation payments through the UNCC has indicated to Jubilee Iraq that it has decided to return the money to the Iraqi people, probably through donating it to a humanitarian organisation working in Iraq. The precise details and the identity of the company are confidential for the time being, but we will publish more details if and when they give us permission.

This act of justice should be a spur to other claimants, both companies and governments, to drop their outstanding claims and return any monies they have already recieved to Iraq.

There have been various fasts in US cities in solidarity with the Geneva Fast for Economic Justice in Iraq. A banner from a fast in Palo Alto is shown below.

Jeff Leys, one of American fasters in Geneva, writes: "We must end our country’s—and the international community’s—ongoing economic warfare against the people of Iraq. This warfare currently takes the form of demands for war reparations payments from Iraq for the crimes of Saddam Hussein in invading and occupying Kuwait in 1990-91. This warfare also takes the form of demand for repayment of the odious debt which Saddam Hussein incurred in the 1980’s as he built his military machine to wage war against Iraq and strengthened his internal security apparatus to repress the Iraqi people. Closely related to each demand is the shadow of the International Monetary Fund, waiting to impose an economic structural readjustment program upon Iraq... Our country must take the lead in actively pursuing and passing a new U.N. Security Council resolution that would cancel outright all outstanding and unpaid war reparations claims imposed or pending against Iraq. Our country and the international community must also justly treat Iraq concerning the odious debt incurred by Hussein’s regime."

June 28, 2005

As Jubilee Iraq and collegues demonstrate outside the UNCC meeting today, Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammed Hamud Bidan told Reuters shortly before addressing the Commission: "We suggest we stop the payments of 5%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." He added that the claimants should heed the example of the Paris Club creditors who agreed on a 80% reduction in debt last November. He explained that, like Iraq's former foes Kuwait and Iran, ordinary Iraqis were also "victims of the Saddam Hussein regime," and the country needed funds for its own reconstruction.

However, in a speech to the closed-door talks obtained by Reuters, Kuwait called for "political support...to ensure uninterrupted payments" to all successful claimants.

Iraq has already paid out $19.2 billion. The bulk of the "backlog" of $32.9 billion is owed to Kuwait, UNCC officials said. UN internal auditors, in reports made public last January, alleged that the Geneva-based body overpaid up to $5 billion to claimants. The final mega-claims are still on the table are demands for $50 billion in compensation for damage to the environment sought by six of Iraq's neighbors -- Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Jordan, Syria and Turkey. "A modest amount will be approved," a UNCC source said.

The Iraqi delegation held 30-minute talks with Khaled Ahmad Al-Mudhaf, chairman of Kuwait's Public Authority for Assessment of Compensation for Damages Resulting from Iraqi Aggression. "Their reaction now was positive but we need to speak about details case by case. Maybe they will accept to speak about government compensation but not individuals," Bidan said. However, the Kuwaiti delegation appeared surprised by his statement:"We do not agree to dropping compensation completely...The issue of compensation is in the hands of the U.N.," Al-Mudhaf told Reuters.

The Fast for Economic Justice in Iraq is holding a press conference today at 10am outside the Pregny entrance to the UN, Geneva. Call +41 76 4203126 to talk to the fasters in Geneva or +964 790 1942 468 to talk to Jubilee Iraq in Baghdad.

Irish faster, Caomihe Butterly says: "We traveled to Geneva to fast, to go without food for 16 days, in the hopes that our small sacrifice would in some manner awaken the conscience of the international community to the economic warfare being waged against the Iraqi people. Our sacrifice is indeed minimal compared to the suffering of the Iraqi people. Child malnutrition has nearly doubled since the occupation of Iraq began. Hospitals remain in disrepair and shortages of medicine are rampant. Electricity is sporadic at best. Security is virtually non-existent. And yet at this moment of crisis in the lives of Iraqis, the United Nations stands poised to impose up to another 65 billion dollars in war reparations claims against Iraq. The Iraqi people had no choice when Saddam Hussein’s regime invaded Kuwait. He was wrong to do so. It is equally wrong to continue to punish the Iraqi people for the crimes of Saddam Hussein."

Seperately, the World Tribunal on Iraq, reaching its culmination yestarday after 20 global meetings over 2 years, concluded that in fact the Coalition governments should be paying reparations to Iraq.

Nearing the end of the two week Fast for Economic Justice outside the UNCC in Geneva, Kathy Kelly recalls a distressing email from an Iraqi friend, who mentioned that the rations no longer include basics such as flour, rice and baby's milk and asked her: "why all the world organizations still silent and where is the UN?"

Kathy writes: "It's unthinkable, but an honest answer to Ali's question about the UN would acknowledge that on 28-30 June, the UN will very likely tighten the thumbscrews still further in afflicting pain on innocent Iraqis... In the years between 1996–2003, the UNCC approved $52.1 billion in payment to individuals, companies and countries. As one of the most secretive of all UN organizational structures, the UNCC forbade the Iraqi negotiators to see many of the claims made against them, refused to allow Iraq to contest claims it did see, and forced the Iraqis to underwrite expenses for translation of all documents as it insisted that no discussions be held in Arabic. The UNCC could have chosen to pay the individual claimants but then ask the countries and companies, many of them quite wealthy, to wait until Iraq was first able to meet the needs of starving and diseased children. It could still choose to give priority to alleviating suffering in Iraq. Instead, after all of the decisions are recorded, after the lawyers, accountants, claims analysts, secretaries, translators, and negotiators sign off on their part in the procedures, Iraq will very likely face demands to continue using its desperately needed oil revenue to pay reparations to claimants [like oil company Texaco] whose complaints are deemed more worthy of attention than the pleas raised in Ali's letter."
Full article

June 26, 2005

Following a tour by 6 Iraqi labor leaders (from the IFTU, FWCUI & GUOE), attending 45 events in 25 US cities, today they issued a statement in Washington including: "We call for the cancellation of Saddam’s massive foreign debt without any conditions imposed upon the people of Iraq who suffered under the regime that was supported by these loans. The foreign debt of Iraq is the debt of a fallen dictatorship, not the debt incurred by the Iraqi people. Further, we call for the cancellation of reparations imposed as a result of wars waged by Saddam Hussein’s regime... The national wealth and resources of Iraq belong to the Iraqi people. We are united in our opposition to the imposition of privatization of the Iraqi economy by the occupation, the IMF, the World Bank, foreign powers and any force that takes away the right of the Iraqi people to determine their own economic future."

June 25, 2005

Iraqi newspaper Al-Ittijah al-Akhar today published a column by Fu'ad al-Azawi calling for reviewing the war reparations paid by the UN Compensation Commission. al-Azaqi said that several countries, companies and individuals have been overcompensated since 1996.

June 24, 2005

Voices in the Wilderness founder Kathy Kelly writes about her experiences of the suffering of Iraqis through the years of sanctions, war and occupation and argues: "The UNCC's officials, accountants, claims analysts, and lawyers have played a crucial role in manipulating Iraq's economy throughout the last decade. Quite possibly few have visited Iraq or read the reports filed by their colleagues in the World Health Organization, UNICEF or the Food and Agriculture Organization. We met the people filing those reports regularly, on every visit to Baghdad. They often implored us to go back to the U.S. and beg our government to recognize that economic sanctions punished the most vulnerable people in Iraq. For UNCC workers who read the accounts, it must have been difficult to cooperate with the U.S. and UN in a strange set of priorities that gravely contradicted fundamental UN mandates. After the UN Security Council established the Oil for Food program in 1996, the Saddam Hussein government, desperate for more oil revenue, agreed to pay 30% of Iraq's oil revenue, yearly to compensate countries, corporations and individuals claiming damages from Hussein's invasion 1990-1991 invasion of Kuwait... Beyond the individual claims, shouldn't the UNCC members have re-examined their priorities? They could have told the wealthy countries and corporations with outstanding claims, "We're sorry, but you will have to wait. Iraq's oil resources should immediately be reinvested into Iraq to give the people there, particularly the children, a chance to survive." This sort of statement would have cohered with UN mandates to protect the rights of children and uphold human rights. Saddam Hussein's regime showed ruthless disregard for the rights of its citizens. But the oil-for-food program, with all of its flaws, did save lives and many more could have been saved had their been more revenue available and had the UNCC showed more urgent compassion for humanitarian concerns. Some UNCC workers clearly were troubled. We've recently learned of two lawyers who resigned for conscientious reasons.
read full reflection

June 23, 2005

The Brussels Conference has produced no breakthrough on Saddam's odious debt, only more vague words and a patronising order for Iraq to obey the IMF.

Minister of Finance Ali Allawi emphasised that the "resolution of Iraq's indebtedness is crucial for ensuring that economic revival commences in earnest.'' He explained that Iraq was having to submit to an IMF standby agreement to secure even the limited debt relief offered by the Paris Club. The statement of the conference merely called for creditors to give "debt relief, comparable to that offered by the Paris Club".

The closing statement said: "They recalled commitments made to reduce Iraq's debt and called on other creditors to provide debt relief on generous terms comparable to those agreed by the members of the Paris Club. They agreed to support Iraq's integration into the relevant international economic organisations, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO). Furthermore participants urged the ITG to meet its commitments to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with a view to reaching a stand-by arrangement by the end of 2005."

At a closing news conference, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari mentioned ''some positive responses'' from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait on the issue of debt relief, but said further discussions were needed. Prince Saud of Saudi Arabia said "The Kingdom has also expressed its readiness to look into the matter of reducing Iraq's debt burden. We have already handed over information to the Iraqi side in this respect. With the formation of the Iraqi government, we are looking forward to direct talks on writing off debts and reduce its burden." There is no new or clear committment in this statement.

A donors conference will take place in Amman, Jordan 18-19 July.
Here are some more links related to the conference.

The European Debt and Development Association (Eurodad) calculates that the first tranche of Paris Club cancellation of Saddam's debt, $11.6bn, could falsely inflate Europe’s overseas development aid figures (because debt relief is routinely included in this budget) by up to a quarter at a time when governments have committed to substantially increase aid budgets. It is urging its members to get parliamentarians from many countries to question the UK Presidency on this on 6 July when the European Parliament will hold a debate on Iraq. The questions they will be asking include: "To ask the minister to give an assurance that none of the money provided by this country to Iraq was directly or indirectly used by Saddam Hussein’s government to violate the human rights of the Iraqi people."

"Taking Iraqi oil revenue and paying companies in Kuwait is an injustice," says Kathy Kelly of Voices in the Wilderness in a syndicated report on the Geneva fast by Inter Press Service, also quoting Jubilee Iraq.

June 21, 2005

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is co-chairing the Iraq conference in Brussels tomorrow, told reporters on board her flight to Belgium that the meeting will not yield promises to cancel Iraq's huge debts. "I don't expect that there will be really an outcome in that regard," she said, adding that debt relief may be a topic for a future meeting.

Rice said that she did not raise the debt issue with her Saudi counterpart during meetings and a lengthy dinner in Riyadh on Monday night, but will raise it with him during Wednesday's meeting.

The Slovak government today canceled its 35m korunas ($1.12m) debt claim against Iraq. The debt is a result of agreements from 1972 to 1986 between Iraq and the former Czechoslovakia, which split in 1993 into two separate states - Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Foreign Minister Eduard Kukan, who will be taking part in the Brussels conference tomorrow, said the decision was an expression of good will to help the country build a free democratic society.

At the request of the interim Iraqi government, the EU and US are hosting 80 nations' foreign ministers to discuss Iraqi debt relief and reconstruction this week in Brussels. The conference begins with a dinner this evening for guests that will include U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U. N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. U.S. President George Bush will attend part of the conference. An EU official told a press briefing: "This is the opportunity for Iraq and members of the Paris Club to encourage others to be as generous, or more generous [than the Paris Club].""If the debt burden is not relieved, it will be a drag on their economy and it will keep them shackled and prevent them from making economic progress," said Richard Jones, senior adviser on Iraq to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Iraq announced today that it has signed a bilateral agreement with Canada ratifying the terms of the Paris Club agreement of last November. It was hoped that Canada would go beyond the terms of the Paris Club and provide 100% cancellation, but this has not happened.

When fully phased in, the agreement signed Monday will reduce this debt stock from $590m to approximately $120m. The debt reduction will take effect in three installments. Approximately $175m will be cancelled immediately; a second installment of approximately $175m of debt cancellation will automatically become effective upon the signing by Iraq of a formal stand-by arrangement with the International Monetary Fund ; and a final installment, equal to approximately $120m, will automatically take effect upon completion of the stand-by arrangement. The residual debt stock will be repayable over a 23 year period with six years of grace on principal payments. No principal or interest will be payable during the first three years.

Veteran American Iraq-solidarity campaigner, Cathy Breen, has written a reflection on her first few days on the fast. Other reflections and documents related to the fast are on the VITW page.

June 19, 2005

Here is a detailed Q&A about the UNCC and the reparations developed by VITW for the Geneva fast.

The core fasters, who will be fasting the full two weeks, are:

Cynthia Banas - a longtime UNICEF volunteer who lived in Baghdad October 2002-April 2003. She campaigned against the sanctions from 1996.
Leisa Faulkner - winner of the 2004 Dolores Huerta Award for humanitarian service
Rita Jankowska-Bradley - a board member of Jubilee USA
Kathy Kelly - The founder of VITW who has visited Iraq 22 times since 1991 when she joined the Gulf Peace Team on the Iraq-Saudi border. She faces an outstanding $20,000 fine from the US government for donating toys & medicines to Iraq in violation of the sanctions.
Jeff Leys - Has visited Iraq twice with Christian Peacemaker Teams, in Feb and Nov 2003.
Cathy Breen - A member of the Iraq Peace Team, in Baghdad during the first 10 days of the war.
Farah Mokhtarei - Laid the foundation for the Iraq Peace Team during a visit to Iraq in Autumn 2002.
Caoimhe Butterly - Spent 5 months in Iraq in 2003 supporting grassroots Iraqi activists.
full biographies

Many other people, including Iraqis living in Switzerland and France, will be joining the fast for a few days.

June 16, 2005

Hans von Sponeck, who quit as U.N. humanitarian coordinator in 2000 after sharply criticising the effects of the then economic sanctions on civilians, said Iraq's government should negotiate its reparations debt directly with claimants. Speaking on the first day of the Geneva fast for Economic Justice in Iraq, he told Reuters: "The UNCC has no legitimacy for one day longer, it is not a colonial master," Von Sponeck told Reuters. "Whatever happens must be bilateral; it is an issue between the government of Iraq and claimants." Kathy Kelly of Voices in the Wilderness added: "Taking Iraqi oil revenues and paying companies in Kuwait is an injustice which can only fuel more violence. The people of Iraq have suffered and endured so much, from sanctions to bombardment to occupation ... They are innocent people who haven't done anything wrong."


See Asharq al-Awsat newspaper for an arabic report on this.

June 15, 2005

9:30 a.m. beside the ICRC museum on Avenue de la Paix, Geneva (the location has changed because of construction work outside the main UN building). The location is 12 mins by bus from Cornavin railway station, take Bus 8 or F to the Appia stop, or Bus V or Z to the Ariana stop.

June 14, 2005

Hans von Sponek, who resigned as director of the UN Humanitarian Assistance program in Iraq in 2000 in protest at the international economic sanctions, will join the first day of the fast for Economic Justice in Iraq, focused in past on the UN Compensation Commission, on the 16th June.

Iraqi Vice President Dr. Adel Abdul Mahdi said today that Iraq will send a special delegation, led by the Minister of Finance Ali Allawi, to creditor countries to cancel more Iraqi debts. He said that Iraq will call for canceling or rescheduling the remaining 20% of debts on top of the 80% stipulated by the Paris Club.

June 11, 2005

The forthcoming Geneva fast for Economic Justice in Iraq has been reported as widely as in Turkey, Qatar and Italy.

June 02, 2005

Answering a journalists question about lifting subsidies for electricity and fuel, Laith Kubba, the Prime Minister's spokesman, explained that this was being forced on Iraq by the IMF because of debt: "As for writing off the debts of Iraq, there are conditions to reducing the support of the government for basic services. Iraq has 10 billions of debts, and I think we cannot avoid this." (Source: Federal News Service)

June 01, 2005

Jubilee Iraq and Voices in the Wilderness are hosting a Fast for Economic Justice for Iraq 15-30 June in Geneva at the UN. The protest ties in with the final meeting of the UNCC on 28-30 June. Our core demands are:

1. An immediate moratorium on war reparations payments and claims followed by a U.N. Security Council resolution canceling all reparations imposed against Iraq;
2. The elimination of all odious debt incurred by Saddam Hussein’s regime as determined by an odious debt arbitration tribunal in which Iraq has full due process rights;
3. That no economic conditions be imposed upon Iraq by the international community through such mechanisms as an International Monetary Fund (IMF) stand-by-agreement or otherwise;
4. Full funding for the reconstruction of Iraq which benefits the Iraqi people, is directed by the Iraqi people, and is without any strings attached.

We welcome participation by anyone, particularly Iraqis, for all or part of the two weeks. Ahlan wa sahlan.

More details