Tuesday, January 4, 2011
The end of sanctions? not quite
"This is a turning point in the history of Iraq", said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, describing the UN Security Council's vote on 15 December 2010 to lift most of the international sanctions imposed on Iraq twenty years ago, after it invaded Kuwait.
The end of sanctions? not quite
"This is a turning point in the history of Iraq", said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, describing the UN Security Council's vote on 15 December 2010 to lift most of the international sanctions imposed on Iraq twenty years ago, after it invaded Kuwait.
The resolutions it adopted included removing restrictions preventing Iraq from building nuclear, chemical or biological weapons; closing the oil-for-food programme; and ending the UN- supervised Development Fund for Iraq, which gave Baghdad immunity from legal claims during the Saddam Hussein era.
Maliki hailed these resolutions as a resounding success. Others are more sceptical, and say the sanctions should have been lifted far earlier.
Among the dissenting voices is an Iraqi journalist now living in Europe. On his Facebook site, he wrote: “Congratulations to the Iraqi people on the lifting of unfair sanctions imposed on our beloved country. The sanctions have led to our destruction over many years and have turned the lives of most Iraqis into hell".Abdul Hussein Shaban, head of the Documentation Centre of International Law, agrees that it was ordinary people who suffered the most.
“Instead of imposing sanctions on the Iraqi president and his supporters, the international community imposed its sanctions on the Iraqi people. Key services deteriorated and innocent people suffered and died as a result. "
The impact of these sanctions on a humanitarian, social and material level is visible to this day, says Shaban. “It was a gradual and systematic way of destroying the Iraqi people and society.”
So why has it taken the international community so long to lift sanctions after the fall of Saddam Hussein?
After all, UN resolution 1483, which stipulated that Iraq should be removed from the UN Chapter VII on sanctions, was adopted in 2003.
Shaban believes that the delay was partly due to the widespread corruption within the reconstruction projects, as well as the infighting between Iraqi politicians.
But a major stumbling block has been Kuwait, which still receives war reparations from Iraq, and is demanding the return of its stolen property and an explanation of the fate of hundreds of missing Kuwaitis.
According to Shaban, Kuwait mobilized the regional and international community against lifting sanctions, until an international resolution on relations between Iraq and Kuwait was agreed.
Things may be moving on this front, though. Officials in both countries are currently engaged in talks, which could lead to the lifting of the remaining UN sanctions relating to Kuwait.
Osama al-Nujaifi, the newly elected Speaker of Parliament, has called upon Parliament to “engage in intensive bilateral negotiations with Kuwait to resolve all outstanding issues without resorting to UN help." He will be making an official visit to Kuwait in the near future.
Kuwait's ambassador to Baghdad, Ali al-Mu'men, has already held a meeting with Nujaifi.
Afterwards he said, “We want to show our good intentions towards Iraq, and believe that we will be able to resolve our differences within a month or two.”
And he added that the formation of Iraq's new government will help with bilateral relations.
Abdul Hussain Shaban is optimistic: "Kuwait has said that the issue is not about the relationship between the two countries, but about the implementation of international resolutions. Now that the UN Security Council has agreed to the lifting of sanctions, Kuwait should no longer have any objections."
"I think our southern neighbour has finally understood how much Iraqis have suffered in the last twenty years and it will perhaps now take the initiative to abandon some of its compensation claims", he says.
But for the moment, Iraq still has to comply with certain requirements of Chapter VII of the UN Charter, by which it will continue to pay war reparations to Kuwait from its oil revenues.
It also has to provide US$20 million dollars until December 2016 to pay for UN assistance in ending the Oil-for-Food programme.
The Development Fund for Iraq will continue until June 2011, when Iraq will regain control over its profits from the sale of oil and gas.
Abdul Hussein Shaban believes that the new Iraqi government is determined to use this money to reach settlements regarding compensation claims and lawsuits that go back many years through legal and diplomatic channels.
This opinion is backed up by statements made recently by Iraq's Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari, and his Egyptian counterpart, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, in which they declared that Baghdad will do everything it can to settle claims by Egyptian citizens as soon as possible.
