By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 3 1996 (IPS)

The United Nations is seeking more than two billion dollars to reward nationals of 67 countries for losses incurred in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf crisis.

Millions of Third World expatriates in Kuwait and neighbouring Gulf countries lost their jobs during the crisis, which culminated with the Jan. 1991 U.S.-led war against Iraq. Claims for compensation have come mostly from migrant workers and their families for loss of lives, property, and wages.

The Geneva-based U.N. Compensation Commission recommends that the biggest single award — 207.4 million dollars — go to Egypt, followed by 145.2 million dollars to India, 71.9 million dollars to Sri Lanka, and 52.7 million dollars to Bangladesh.

Since Iraq’s Aug. 1990 invasion of Kuwait triggered the crisis, Baghdad is held responsible for the losses and the payments. But the Iraqi government says it will not be able to meet any of the claims until the United Nations lifts the economic embargo it imposed as punishment.

In a letter to the Security Council in late 1994, Baghdad complained that the embargo had deprived Iraq “of all its financial resources and paralysed its ability to provide the minimum humanitarian and essential needs for its people”.

The embargo has prevented Baghdad from selling oil, its primary revenue earner, and has resulted in a freeze on all Iraqi assets held in overseas banks.

A Security Council resolution adopted last year set conditions for renewed Iraqi oil exports. The Council said 30 percent of all Iraqi oil revenues should be given to the U.N. Compensation Commission for settling claims.

But the Iraqi government refuses any conditional export of oil, saying this would be a violation of its national sovereignty.

In the meantime, the Compensation Commission is broke, according to U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

“We have created an organ in Geneva which is to give indemnities to three to four million workers from India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Kuwait, Jordan and Egypt,” he said last week. “They lost their jobs and their personal belongings during their war. But the Compensation Commission has no money”.

The president of the Compensation Commission’s Governing Council, Giuseppe Baldocci, has said that the lack of resources to pay outstanding compensation awards challenges “the very credibility of the Compensation Commission and eventually the whole U.N. system.”

“The Governing Council looks forward to the Security Council for finding appropriate and expedited solutions to ensure that the increasing number of issued compensation awards is to be honoured,” Baldocci wrote in a letter to the Security Council.

Since the economic sanctions were imposed in Aug. 1990, Iraq has also failed to pay its dues to both the regular and peacekeeping budgets of the United Nations. The debt now amounts to more than 7.7 million dollars.

U.N. economic sanctions “have made it difficult for Iraq to pay its dues to the United Nations,” Saeed Hasan of Iraq told U.N. delegates last month.

He spoke as Iraq introduced a resolution, seeking a waiver on its debt. But the U.N. Administrative and Budgetary Committee voted against any action on the matter.

Iraq had continued to fund the Baghdad-based U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ECSWA) with local currency. But Baghdad complains that, since 1993, the United Nations has refused to accept payment in Iraqi currency and has since shifted the ECSWA headquarters to Amman, Jordan.

Iraq’s 1994 letter suggested that the Security Council either unfreeze 300,000 dollars of its overseas assets or accept Iraqi currency as payment for accumulated debts.

“Unfortunately, neither suggestion was accepted,” Hasan said.

Under article 19 of the U.N. Charter, a member-state is deemed to have no vote in the 185-member General Assembly if its arrears equals or exceeds the amount of its contributions for the preceding two years.

But the Charter says the General Assembly may permit such a member to vote once it deems that the failure to pay is due to conditions beyond the control of the state.

An Iraqi request for “a generous interpretation” of Article 19 of the Charter was been opposed by New Zealand as the General Assembly wound to a close last month. A New Zealand proposal to close the agenda item on Iraq without any action was approved by a vote of 48 in favour to three against (Algeria, Cuba and Libya). Twenty-three countries abstained.

Excerpt:

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 3 1996 (IPS)

The United Nations is seeking more than two billion dollars to reward nationals of 67 countries for losses incurred in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf crisis.

Millions of Third World expatriates in Kuwait and neighbouring Gulf countries lost their jobs during the crisis, which culminated with the Jan. 1991 U.S.-led war against Iraq. Claims for compensation have come mostly from migrant workers and their families for loss of lives, property, and wages.

The Geneva-based U.N. Compensation Commission recommends that the biggest single award — 207.4 million dollars — go to Egypt, followed by 145.2 million dollars to India, 71.9 million dollars to Sri Lanka, and 52.7 million dollars to Bangladesh.

Since Iraq’s Aug. 1990 invasion of Kuwait triggered the crisis, Baghdad is held responsible for the losses and the payments. But the Iraqi government says it will not be able to meet any of the claims until the United Nations lifts the economic embargo it imposed as punishment.

In a letter to the Security Council in late 1994, Baghdad complained that the embargo had deprived Iraq “of all its financial resources and paralysed its ability to provide the minimum humanitarian and essential needs for its people”.

The embargo has prevented Baghdad from selling oil, its primary revenue earner, and has resulted in a freeze on all Iraqi assets held in overseas banks.

A Security Council resolution adopted last year set conditions for renewed Iraqi oil exports. The Council said 30 percent of all Iraqi oil revenues should be given to the U.N. Compensation Commission for settling claims.

But the Iraqi government refuses any conditional export of oil, saying this would be a violation of its national sovereignty.

In the meantime, the Compensation Commission is broke, according to U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

“We have created an organ in Geneva which is to give indemnities to three to four million workers from India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Kuwait, Jordan and Egypt,” he said last week. “They lost their jobs and their personal belongings during their war. But the Compensation Commission has no money”.

The president of the Compensation Commission’s Governing Council, Giuseppe Baldocci, has said that the lack of resources to pay outstanding compensation awards challenges “the very credibility of the Compensation Commission and eventually the whole U.N. system.”

“The Governing Council looks forward to the Security Council for finding appropriate and expedited solutions to ensure that the increasing number of issued compensation awards is to be honoured,” Baldocci wrote in a letter to the Security Council.

Since the economic sanctions were imposed in Aug. 1990, Iraq has also failed to pay its dues to both the regular and peacekeeping budgets of the United Nations. The debt now amounts to more than 7.7 million dollars.

U.N. economic sanctions “have made it difficult for Iraq to pay its dues to the United Nations,” Saeed Hasan of Iraq told U.N. delegates last month.

He spoke as Iraq introduced a resolution, seeking a waiver on its debt. But the U.N. Administrative and Budgetary Committee voted against any action on the matter.

Iraq had continued to fund the Baghdad-based U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ECSWA) with local currency. But Baghdad complains that, since 1993, the United Nations has refused to accept payment in Iraqi currency and has since shifted the ECSWA headquarters to Amman, Jordan.

Iraq’s 1994 letter suggested that the Security Council either unfreeze 300,000 dollars of its overseas assets or accept Iraqi currency as payment for accumulated debts.

“Unfortunately, neither suggestion was accepted,” Hasan said.

Under article 19 of the U.N. Charter, a member-state is deemed to have no vote in the 185-member General Assembly if its arrears equals or exceeds the amount of its contributions for the preceding two years.

But the Charter says the General Assembly may permit such a member to vote once it deems that the failure to pay is due to conditions beyond the control of the state.

An Iraqi request for “a generous interpretation” of Article 19 of the Charter was been opposed by New Zealand as the General Assembly wound to a close last month. A New Zealand proposal to close the agenda item on Iraq without any action was approved by a vote of 48 in favour to three against (Algeria, Cuba and Libya). Twenty-three countries abstained.

Excerpt: