SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iraq has completed payment of $52.4 billion to compensate individuals, companies and governments who proved damages due to its 1990 invasion and occupation of Kuwait, the United Nations reparations body said on Wednesday.
Set up in 1991 by U.N. Security Council Resolution 692 to manage financial compensation owed by Iraq to Kuwait, the body raised the funds through a five percent tax on sales of oil and other petroleum products.
Iraq’s Saddam Hussein ordered his army to invade Kuwait and seize what he described as “Iraq’s 19th province” on August 2, 1990, before being pushed back seven months later by a U.S.-led coalition.
In all, about 2.7 million claims, with an asserted value of $352.5 billion were lodged, but the UNCC approved payment of $52.4 billion covering 1.5 million successful claims, according to Reuters.
The largest claim approved by the UNCC was for $14.7 billion in damages incurred by the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) after departing Iraqi troops set fire to oil wells, Reuters reported.
The last payment was made on January 13 totaling nearly $630 million, according to the report formally adopted in Geneva on Wednesday, AFP reported.
Payments were suspended between October 2014 and April 2018 because of the Iraqi government’s security and budgetary problems in its fight against Islamic State militants.
“With the final payment of compensation made on 13 January 2022, all compensation awarded by the Commission has now been paid in full,” the Geneva-based body said in a statement following a closed-door meeting of its Governing Council, according to Reuters.
“The Government of Iraq has fulfilled its international obligations to compensate all claimants awarded compensation by the Commission for losses and damages suffered as a direct result of Iraq’s unlawful invasion of Kuwait,” it said.
“This accomplishment is noteworthy and has contributed to post-conflict reconciliation, demonstrating the value and importance of international law.”
Bathsheba Crocker, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, tweeted on Tuesday after talks with Qahtan Al-Janabi, Iraqi under-secretary for multilateral and legal affairs, and other diplomats ahead of Wednesday’s meeting: “We commend Iraq for completing payments for all UNCC claims, a historic achievement.”
(Esta Media Network/Agencies)
