U.S. Wants to Keep Kuwait Compensation Fund As Is

by Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent

United Nations -- The United States does not support a reduction in
the amount of money Iraq is required to contribute to the fund
compensating those with claims against Baghdad for the invasion of
Kuwait, U.S. Ambassador James Cunningham said September 21.

After a private Security Council meeting on the oil-for-food program
Cunningham was asked about efforts underway in Geneva to reduce the
percentage of the oil sales revenues that goes into the compensation
fund from 30 percent to 20 percent in order to allocate more for the
purchase of humanitarian supplies.

"We're not in favor of a delay," the ambassador said. 

He added the U.S. would "like to have a decision [on the proposal]
taken next week by consensus the way we have always done."

"We think the case is clear: The compensation process has been running
for some time; it has followed an agreed course that we've all
endorsed. The people in Geneva have done a very good job adjudicating
these claims and coming up with compensation awards," said Cunningham,
who is the deputy U.S. representative to the United Nations.

While the United States is willing to review any idea for improving
the flow of humanitarian aid into Iraq, the proposal to reduce the
amount to the compensation fund "doesn't seem to us to meet that
criterion," the ambassador said.

"The fact of the matter is, there is already more than enough money in
the oil-for-food account," Cunningham pointed out.

"The problem is the inability [of Iraq] to spend it rapidly enough,"
he said. "Reducing the amount to the compensation fund would have the
effect of taking funds of an account that needs money because there is
a large amount of mostly small claims -- thousands that remain to be
settled...and putting it into an account that is currently in
surplus."

"We have difficulty understanding the rationale," Cunningham said.

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)