Oil against food

Pétrole against food is the name of a program which aimed at satisfying the humane needs for the people Iraq IEN after the war of Kuwait (also called first war of the Gulf). It was set up to reduce the prolonged sufferings of the Iraqi people due to the economic sanctions installation by UNO following the invasion of the Kuwait by Iraq in August 1990. According to certain estimates, 1,5 million Iraqis would have perished for lack of food or drug during the international embargo. Hans van Sponeck affirmed that the international sanctions caused the death of 150 children per day.

Temporary at the origin, it made it possible the Iraq to sell its oil and to buy in exchange of food, of the drugs and many services, that under the supervision of UNO. It was stopped following the military intervention of the the United States and their allies in 2003.

Conceived like a " temporary measure intended to meet the humane needs for the people irakien" , the program " Oil against nourriture" functioned of 1996 to 2003, brewing in all 64 billion dollars.

Unfolding and operation

After an initial refusal, Iraq signs an agreement in May 1996 for the installation of the program suggested in the resolution. The program begins really in October 1997 and the first deliveries of foodstuffs go back to May 1998.

The incomes resulting from exports of oil are placed on a separate account managed by the Safety advice of the United Nations.

30 % as of these incomes are used to compensate the Kuwait.
13 % are assigned to the Iraqi Kurdistan, where the United States and the Great Britain established a zone known as of “safety”.
3 % are used to pay the civils servant of UNO.
54 % remaining are used with the purchase of food and drugs.

But the acceptance of the least contract is subjected to the approval of the Safety advice which will block approximately half of the contracts. In fact the the United States and the Great Britain will be at the origin of the near total of the vetoes. In September 1998, the coordinator of the humane program of UNO in Iraq, Denis Halliday, resigns for this reason. beginning 2000, Hans van Sponeck, her successor, and Jutta Burghardt, person in charge of the program for the world supply Iraq, resign for the same reason.

After Russia, France was the second country bénéficaire of " Oil against nourriture".

Scandal

This system was accompanied by an important network of Corruption, conceived by the Iraqi mode like a international Réseau of influence. It wide in France, in Russia, in the United States, in the United Kingdom, in Italy, in Australia, in India, and within the wheels of UNO.

In January 2004, a newspaper of Baghdad publishes a list of 270 people including 21 French. This denunciation will be the starting point of the Affaire Oil against food.

See too

External bonds

the site of the Commission Volker
Testimony of the Iraq Collective of Rheims on the embargo and the program oil against food

Random links: