KURDISTAN NEWSLINE
Special Dispatch New York May 16, 2003
KRG UN Liaison Office Press Statement
Kurdistan Regional
Government
UN Liaison Office
Howar Ziad, Representative Tel: (212) 581 9525 Email:
KurdistanUN@msn.com
Press Statement: May
16, 2003 New York
UN Oil-for-Food
Program: Iraqi Kurds ask for reform and accountability
Thanks to the resolute
and courageous leadership of President George W. Bush and
Prime Minister Tony Blair, Iraq has now been completely
liberated. As a result, on April 16, 2003, President George
W. Bush called on the UN to lift economic sanctions against
Iraq. The draft US-sponsored UN Security Council Resolution
(UNSCR) would replace UN oversight of Iraq's oil revenues
with an internationally supervised Iraqi Assistance Fund
(IAF).
The leadership of
Iraqi Kurdistan welcomes this proposal. We believe that the
principle of international control of Iraqi oil revenues and
supervision of the spending of these revenues in a
transparent and accountable manner should be preserved to
prevent the corruption and human rights violations that
plague oil-dependent, Middle Eastern countries.
While welcoming the US
proposals, we are concerned that they fail to address the
issue of billions of unspent dollars in UN controlled
accounts, nominally allocated to three Iraqi Kurdish
provinces. Thanks to obstruction by Saddam's regime, unspent
money for the Iraqi Kurds totals in excess of $2.5bn and
could even be double that figure. Under UN Security Council
resolution (UNSCR) 986, 13% of Iraqi oil revenues are
reserved for three Kurdish provinces. These provinces are
desperately poor. The unspent funds are needed to cope with
the ongoing reconstruction following the genocidal Anfal
campaign of 1987-88. The Kurdish provinces contain around
800,000 internally displaced persons, roughly a quarter of
the total population, and victims of ethnic cleansing by the
Iraqi regime that continued until late March 2003. Basic
infrastructure available elsewhere in Iraq still needs to be
built for the Kurds.
The US-sponsored draft
fails to specify that the IAF will operate on the same basis
as UNSCR 986, with a separate account for the Kurdish
provinces. The international community recognized the right
of Iraqi Kurds to their legitimate share of Iraqi oil
revenues with UNSCR 986. It would be a strange and
retrograde step for a US-sponsored resolution to roll back
the rights of Iraq's most brutalized citizens.
Under UNSCR 1472, the
UN Secretary-General can divert unspent funds from the
Kurdish 13% account for short-term humanitarian relief.
UNSCR 1472 specified that the diversion of funds would be on
an “exceptional and reimbursable basis”. The Iraqi Kurds do
not object to providing relief to their fellow Iraqis from
the 13% account—quite the contrary. Regrettably, the
US-sponsored draft resolution does not affirm the crucial
principle that such monies should only be used exceptionally
and should be reimbursed. Again, it would be odd if a
resolution sponsored by the liberators of Iraq were to leave
their main Iraqi allies, the Kurds, worse off.
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Kurdistan Regional Government
UN Liaison Office
Tel: (212) 581 9525 Email: KurdistanUN@msn.com
Background
UN SCR 986 “Oil for Food” program
Iraqi oil is sold under UN control. The proceeds are then
broken down and used in the following manner:
-
72% of Iraqi oil export proceeds fund the humanitarian
program and is broken down into 59% for the contracting
and supplies of equipment by the then government for 15
central and southern mainly Arab-inhabited provinces. The
remaining 13% is allocated to three northern, mostly
Kurdish, provinces;
-
the balance of proceeds is spent as follows: 25% percent
for the Compensation Fund for Gulf War reparation payments
(the U.N. Compensation Commission); 2.5% for U.N.
administrative and operational costs of the Oil-for Food
program; 0.8% for the weapons inspection costs.
Why is so much money for the Kurds unspent?
The UN allowed Saddam's regime to hold up as the building
and equipping of hospitals, water and sanitation projects,
agricultural development, educational services, provision of
electricity and the removal of landmines. Saddam's regime
refused to grant entry visas to qualified staff and declined
import permits for necessary equipment.
The Iraqi regime, with tacit UN approval, engaged in a
campaign to exclude qualified staff from the US and UK.
Additionally, not a single Kurd was employed as member of
the international staff of the Oil-for-Food program Instead,
with the staff was deliberately selected from Arab states,
to be used as couriers for information to the Iraqi secret
police. These workers also impeded UN projects. In July
2001, Kurdish police caught a Tunisian national working for
the UN with explosives in his car. The man was handed over
to the UN.
Mismanagement and incompetence also held up projects The
Kurdish city of Sulaimani, with a population of over
600,000, is still waiting for a 400-bed hospital to be built
five years after funds were allocated for it.
Kurdish success with Oil-for-Food
The Kurdish provinces are an example of the program's
success when a cooperative local partner is available, in
contrast to the way the Saddam regime manipulated
Oil-for-Food to its own benefit. Despite being poorer, the
Kurdish provinces experienced a dramatic decline in the
child mortality rate, while in Saddam's Iraq it was claimed
that the infant mortality rate increased dramatically.
The failure of the Oil-for-Food program outside of the
Kurdish areas was a consequence of a deliberate program of
subversion by Saddam Hussein. Saddam and his sons siphoned
off significant funds from the Oil-for-Food program. As
General Tommy Franks remarked when in Baghdad, it was more
of an “oil for palace” program.
Any reformed UN Oil-for-Food program or the IAF program
should examine the Kurdish experience.
Allocating 13% to the three Kurdish provinces
was an act of justice
The decision to specifically allocate revenues to the three
Kurdish provinces a just and innovative method of revenue
sharing among the citizens of Iraq, designed to provide the
humanitarian and reconstruction needs of the Kurdish region,
which had been subjected to decades of political and
economic discrimination as well as a brutal campaign of
genocide, the infamous Anfal of 1987-1988 and close
to 40 years of ethnic cleansing.
UN indifference
The Iraqi Kurds have made repeated representations to the UN
about the management of the Oil-for-Food program. On
February 10, 2003 Iraqi Kurdish leaders, Jalal Talabani and
Massoud Barzani, wrote to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to
discuss UN plans to allow the unspent cash allocated to the
Iraqi Kurds to be used for short-term humanitarian relief
resulting from the approaching allied invasion of Iraq. We
regret that the UN failed to respond to the Iraqi Kurdish
leaders' letter.
New York May 16, 2003
For further information contact:
Howar Ziad
Kurdistan Regional Government
UN Liaison Office, Tel: 212-581-9525, E-mail:
KurdistanUN@msn.com
Postal address: PO Box 231224 New York NY 10023
