Kurds Upset At Paying Kuwait For Saddam’s Sins

[{ProdigiousHaitian}]

ERBIL, Iraqi Kurdistan: Iraqi Kurdistan will have to pay US$197 million annually from its oil revenues toward Iraq’s debt to Kuwait beginning from next year, according to a new bill currently before the Iraqi parliament.

Iraq still owes $22 billion of the approximately $53 billion which the United Nations (UN) ordered Iraq to pay Kuwait as compensation for war damages incurred during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

Bayazid Hassan, a Kurdish member of the previous Iraqi government’s Oil, Gas and Natural Resources Committee, said the proposed Iraqi Budget Law would require the semiautonomous Kurdistan region to export a minimum 150,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) when it came into force in early 2011.

The revenue from this oil – around $3.94 billion annually – would be transferred directly to the Iraqi oil account, and five percent of this would be required to go toward Kuwait’s compensation, he said.

“According to the Constitution, Iraq’s oil is for all Iraqis, and five percent of the entire Iraqi oil income must go to Kuwait,” said Hassan, a lawmaker from the Kurdish opposition party Gorran.

Article 11 of the Iraqi Constitution states that the country’s oil and gas belongs collectively to all Iraqi citizens, regardless of their religious background or in which region they live.

Additionally, according to a 1991 UN Security Council resolution, Iraq must pay five percent of its oil income into Kuwait’s specially created compensation fund.

Hassan said Iraq was involved in international negotiations to have its debt to Kuwait waived, but if these were not successful, Iraq would have to redeem the entire debt.

Sami Abdulla Atrushi, a member of the former Iraqi government’s Financial Committee, said the country’s debt requirements to Kuwait were an unfair burden on average Iraqis.

“It’s an injustice against Iraqis in general and Kurdish people in particular,” said Atrushi. “Neither the Iraqi people nor their current government…agree with the policies employed by the former [ba’athist] regime [of Saddam Hussein], especially those against Kuwait.”

Atrushi said the Kurdish people were the “first victim” of Hussein’s policies, referring to the Ba’athist regime’s genocidal persecution of the Kurds, and that therefore the compensation requirements were especially inappropriate for Iraqi Kurds.

“It’s a great injustice that Kurds should compensate Kuwait’s losses due to the Ba’athist regime’s policies, because the regime employed the same policies against the Kurdistan region,” said Atrushi. “The [required] five percent of Kurdistan’s oil income would be better spent on development and reconstruction in the region. The effects on Kurdistan from the former regime can still be felt here.”

According to the proposed Budget Law, Iraqi Kurdistan’s oil contribution of 150,000 bpd will not alter its already existing allotment of 17 percent share of Iraq’s overall oil income. With a barrel of oil valued at around US$73, Kurdistan’s crude oil exports will add US$10.95 million per day to Iraq’s oil account.

Mehma Khalil, an Iraqi lawmaker with the alliance of Kurdistani parties, points to shortcomings in the new budget bill.

“The 150,000 bpd export requirement from the Kurdistan region combined with its 17 percent share of Iraq’s oil income points to a political agenda, which the Iraqi oil and finance ministers are behind,” said Khalil, adding that Iraqi Kurdistan was in need of compensation just as much as Kuwait was, due to the Ba’athist regime’s destruction of the Kurdistan region.

“Five thousand of our villages were destroyed; thousands of our mass graves have yet to be discovered,” he said. “Kuwait does not really need that money of ours.”

In addition, Khalil said both Kuwait and Saudi Arabia had given enormous support to Hussein’s former regime in annihilating and oppressing the Kurds.

“It is the Kurds’ right to ask for compensation from both these countries,” said Khalil. “I will not allow the Iraqi parliament to pass such a law.”

[pops]

WOW, they have a good point. Hope this won't be another roadblock to budget. Someone last week said the Kurds in the way.

[come on]

Oh man You got to agree with them But this really sucks They were victims Saddam strikes from the grave

Edited December 28, 2010 by come on

[MPG350]

I agree, I dont think Iraq owes Kuwait anything.

[SPBFAN]

If Kuwait is going to hold to their guns with this then the USA better hold to their guns with the 28 billion dollars Kuwait owes us from that war. If it were not for us they would be part of IRAQ right now and I think their greed for the oil from IRAQ has helped them forget about the debt they have to us for freeing them from the Saddam regime.

IRAQ is a different country now and it needs to be forgiven the debt also so they can rebuild there country and become an international player in this world.

[sneakey]

Those crafty Kurds. I always want to be mad at them, but they are always so dang right.

All I can say is life isn't fair. If the worst thing that happens to them in the next 10 years is that they pay off some debt that they don't owe,

then it will probably be the best 10 years they have had in the last 100.

Memo to Kurds:

Don't get greedy.

Count your blessings.

Focus on the future not the past.

Right now nobody is trying to wipe out your entire culture.

Keeping it that way is more important than squawking about some imaginary money

that you haven't even sucked from the ground yet.

Basically...."you can't lose something you never had."

[jayala]

Link?

[Richardk]

This is part of the UN sanctions, if Iraq (including the Kurds) wants to show the world they are united then even with the past issues, they must contribute to the fund. Their portion is small compared to what they get in return for their oil sales, I hope they just agree and pay their portion so we can see Iraq continue to move forward. This needs to be resolved so that the budget gets approved.

Stay grounded, calm and be happy

Go RV/RI