Sources: Diplomatic News | France Daily

1. Facts

• Debt: $4-8bn, Reparations: $1.72bn

2. Politics

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• Francis Mer (French Finance Minister) said "One does not clear the slate (but) this (debt) can be progressively renegotiated. This does not mean ... that the past must be forgotten and that the debts of a country should be dropped after a change in government." -12th April
• Francois Rivasseau (Foreign Ministry spokesman): Saddam's debt "must be solved on a multilateral level." (Meaning the Paris Club) This statement rules out the unilateral cancellation which Paul Wolfowitz called for on Thursday. - 11th April

3. Action - Write to Francis Mer.

• Remind him of France's long friendship with Iraq.
• Tell him that you think he should indeed "clear the slate".
• While debts should not generally be dropped when governments change, as he says, this should happen in the case of a transition from a dictatorship such as Saddam's in line with the doctrine of "dettes odieuses" which was developed in Paris in the 1920s by Alexander Sacks. The doctrine argues that “If a despotic power incurs a debt not for the needs or in the interest of the State, but to strengthen its despotic regime... it is a regime's debt, a personal debt of the power that has incurred it.”
• Ask the government to publically commit to writing off all debt and reparation claims on Iraq.
• Ask him to negotiate within the Paris Club cartel of creditors to encourage multilateral cancellation of all Saddam's debts and support Jubilee Iraq's proposal for a public arbitration tribunal to fairly assess the legitimacy of any remaining claims.

General advice on writing to politicians.