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Thursday, February 3, 2011Baghdad readies to protect overseas funds
Iraq has told its central bank to open accounts to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars out of a post-Gulf war US fund to protect the money from foreign claims, a government spokesman said yesterday.
The cabinet also asked MPs to approve a $400mn compensation package for US victims of toppled dictator Saddam Hussain, and set up a mechanism for UN-mandated war reparations to Kuwait, Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement.
“The government asked the central bank to ... open accounts before May 1 to transfer funds,” from the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI), he said.
The government approved recommendations “to establish a mechanism to ensure the protection of the money deposited out of Iraq,” Dabbagh added.
The statement came a day after the cabinet meeting. The DFI, which was set up after the 2003 war to handle oil and other revenues, has been protected against claims by a UN resolution that expires on June 30. Dabbagh also said that the cabinet called on the central bank to formulate a “specific and transparent” mechanism to calculate payments to Kuwait.
Under UN resolution 1956, Iraq is required to pay 5% of its oil income to Kuwait for reparations stemming from Saddam’s 1990 invasion of the emirate.
The request for parliamentary approval of the $400mn package, meanwhile, came after Baghdad and Washington agreed on the amount in September, with the money earmarked for Americans who say they were mistreated by Saddam’s troops during the Gulf war. Several US citizens were held by Saddam’s regime during the war over Kuwait and used as human shields to deter coalition attacks, with some claiming they were mistreated and tortured by Saddam’s forces.
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=413569&version=1&template_id=37&parent_id=17
