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* Iraq to print more valuable bills (Associated Press) * Iraq accuses UN of misusing the compensation fund (Associated Press) * UN Compensation Commission on Iraq makes new payment to victims (Arabic News) * Iraqi envoy talks oil with Russia (Associated Press) * Iraq-Iran POW issue (Associated Press) * Blair Sets Out Intervention Doctrine (Reuters): "The spread of our values makes us safer," he argued, quoting John F. Kennedy's words that "Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, who is free?" ******************** Iraq to Print More Valuable Bills Sunday, April 25, 1999; 8:23 a.m. EDT BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraq plans to soon begin printing larger denominations of its currency because the declining value of the dinar has rendered lesser-valued bills virtually useless. Issam Hwaish, governor of the Iraqi Central Bank, said only that the value of new bills would be of a ``large amount.'' It was expected, however, that they would be valued at 500 or 1,000 dinars. Hwaish was quoted Sunday by al-Musawir al-Arabi weekly as saying that the new bills will help stimulate Iraq's money market. They would also make it somewhat easier for shoppers who have to carry bags full of notes to buy big-ticket items. Economic sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait have crippled the Iraqi economy, causing the value of the dinar to plummet. Iraq's largest bill now -- the 250-dinar note -- is worth only 13 cents. Before the Kuwaiti invasion, $1 bought 20 dinars on the black market and the largest bill was the 25-dinar note. In the last few days, the dinar has dropped to its lowest value in more than three years, trading at 2,000 to the dollar. ******************** Iraq Accuses U.N. of Misusing Money By Waiel Faleh, Associated Press Writer, Saturday, April 24, 1999; 11:51 a.m. EDT BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraq suspects a U.N. committee is awarding Iraqi money collected as compensation for Gulf War damage to ``imaginary parties'' and has demanded details on where the money is going, news reports said Saturday. The 15-nation U.N. committee was established at the end of the 1991 Gulf War in order to compensate individuals, companies and governments for losses stemming from Iraq's August 1990 invasion of Kuwait. It has received Kuwaiti, Saudi, Israeli and other requests totaling $240 billion and has awarded $3 billion thus far. In March, the Geneva-based committee issued a statement expressing concern that some governments were holding on to too much of the awards rather than distributing them to the proper parties. Iraq's permanent representative in Geneva has delivered a demand to the committee for the ``names of governments which have received compensation and failed to forward (the money) to those who filed for compensation,'' the official Iraqi News Agency reported Saturday. ``Iraq is not surprised by the committee's issuance of Iraqi people's money to imaginary parties,'' the statement said, according to INA. ``Iraq has demanded in the past to become a party in the meetings of the committee and in the discussions of the compensation demands because it is the party which is paying huge amounts of money without legal grounds.'' The money being distributed comes from the U.N.-approved oil-for-food deal, which allows Iraq to sell limited amounts of oil to buy food, medicine and humanitarian supplies. Thirty percent of Iraq's oil revenues are designated for the compensation fund. Processing all of the requests is expected to take years. The Iraqi statement, according to the news agency, said that if the committee wants to ``avoid legal and ethical responsibility,'' it must respond to Iraq's demands and ensure it complies with international law. ******************** UN Compensation Commission on Iraq makes new payment to victims Arabic News, Iraq, Politics, 4/23/99 The United Nations Compensation Commission yesterday made a total of $101,967,360.03 available from a 30% share of Iraqi petroleum revenues to parties suffering losses due to the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. The Compensation Commission allocated $32.3 million for category A recipients -- those who departed from Kuwait or Iraq. The funds, to be divided among 12,932 successful claimants, were made available to 40 governments and three international organizations for distribution. An additional $69.6 million was made available for 58 Governments and three international organizations to distribute among 28,102 category C claimants -- those who suffered individual losses of up to $100,000. Overall compensation paid out by the commission currently stands at $2,831,080,687.95. Payments are made when sufficient funds have accumulated from Iraqi petroleum sales. ******************** Iraqi Envoy Talks Oil With Russia Saturday, April 24, 1999; 4:06 p.m. EDT BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraq's oil minister traveled to Moscow on Saturday to press Russian oil companies to honor commitments to develop Iraqi oil fields, the official Iraqi News Agency reported. The visit by Lt. Gen. Amer Mohammed Rashid and a delegation of senior Iraqi oil officials is expected to last several days, the news agency said. The Russian company LUKoil, together with partners Zarubezhneft and Mashinoimport, struck a deal with Iraq in March 1997 to develop reserves in Qurna in southern Iraq. Potential output capacity from the field is estimated at 600,000 barrels a day. The deal required the Russian firms to start some of their operations in Iraq. But the Russian consortium has been reluctant to invest in Iraq despite repeated Iraqi pleas to comply with obligations made under the contract. Russia was the first foreign country to sign a deal to develop Iraqi oil fields in defiance of U.N. trade sanctions that ban foreign investment in the country. The Russians are also trying to win another contract that will give them rights to the entire Qurna oil field region in southern Iraq, Oil Ministry officials said on condition of anonymity. ******************** Iran Seeks Data About POWs in Iraq Sunday, April 25, 1999; 9:50 a.m. EDT DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Iran has asked Iraq for information about the fates of 2,806 prisoners from the 1980-88 war between the two countries, an Iranian official said Sunday. Iran has given documents to Iraq and the International Committee of the Red Cross about the prisoners in question, the Iranian news agency quoted Brig. Gen. Abdollah Najafi as saying at a news conference Tehran, the Iranian capital. Najafi, who leads an Iranian commission in charge of POWs, also said that Iraq was seeking information from Iran about 2,000 Iraqi POWs, according to the news agency report monitored in Dubai. Last week, Iranian Brig. Gen. Mohammad Balar, the commission's spokesman, said Iran does not hold any more Iraqi POWs, and that Iraqi soldiers still in Iran have refused to return home. At least 1 million people were killed or wounded in the eight-year war between Iran and Iraq, which ended a U.N.-brokered cease-fire. Animosity, however, has persisted over the POW issue. ******************** Blair Sets Out Intervention Doctrine Reuters, Friday, April 23, 1999 CHICAGO_British Prime Minister Tony Blair proclaimed a bold new international doctrine yesterday that would justify outside military intervention in the internal affairs of governments such as Yugoslavia and Iraq. Setting out his "Doctrine of International Community" in a speech to the Chicago Economic Club, Blair turned the "Brezhnev doctrine" of the 1960s on its head, arguing that national sovereignty is less important than human rights and preventing genocide. "Acts of genocide can never be a purely internal matter," Blair said, citing ethnic cleansing in Kosovo and apartheid in South Africa as examples of threats to world peace. He laid down five tests for intervention: "First, are we sure of our case? . . . Second, have we exhausted all diplomatic options?" Third was if military operations were sensible. The fourth asked if parties were prepared for the long term. Finally, he said, national interests should be involved. "The spread of our values makes us safer," he argued, quoting John F. Kennedy's words that "Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, who is free?" ******************** -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To be removed/added, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk, NOT the whole list. Archived at http://linux.clare.cam.ac.uk/~saw27/casi/discuss.html