RFE/RL IRAQ REPORT
Vol. 3, No. 36, 3 November 2000
A Review of Developments in Iraq Prepared by the Regional
Specialists of RFE/RL's Newsline Team
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HEADLINES
* HORRORS OF IRAQI PRISON SYSTEM HIGHLIGHTED
* UN APPROVES EURO PAYMENTS FOR IRAQI OIL
* BAGHDAD FAIR ATTRACTS 1500 FIRMS
* U.S., U.K. HAVE 'NO PROBLEM' WITH IRAQI DOMESTIC
FLIGHTS
* MOSCOW TO HOST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON IRAQ
* IRAQI ARMORED UNITS IN WEESTERN IRAQ WITHDRAWING
* TURKEY HOPES FOR CLOSER ECONOMIC TIES WITH IRAQ
* JORDAN, IRAQ TO DISCUSS BUILDING OF OIL PIPELINE
* CHINA COMPLETES POWER STATION IN IRAQ
* BARZANI SEES NO NEED FOR MORE MEETINGS
* ANC ON U.S. COURT DECISION ON 'ASSYRIAN'
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HORRORS OF IRAQI PRISON SYSTEM HIGHLIGHTED.
Citing British Foreign Office documents, the "Guardian"
reported that Iraqi officials had executed some 50 mental
health patients in the place of prisoners who had the means
to bribe their way out and that they had cut off a man's
tongue under the terms of a new decree making slander of
Saddam Husseyn an amputation offense. The documents cited by
the paper show that the Iraqi government catalogues its
abuses. It says that "each execution or torture order is
signed by an immediate member of Saddam Husseyn's family or
his closest advisers...The orders allow the signatory to
record how they want the victim to be tortured or to die."
(David Nissman)
UN APPROVES EURO PAYMENTS FOR IRAQI OIL.
The United Nations Sanctions Committee has given Iraqi
oil buyers authorization to pay in euros instead of dollars,
the "Wall Street Journal" reported on 1 November. The paper
said that France had argued that the committee had no
authority to object to Iraq's demand on this point. (Iraq
regularly calls the dollar the currency of its "enemy
state.") It had threatened to cut off oil exports if its
request for payment in euros was denied. Such a shift will
give Baghdad leverage at a time when the available extra
capacity of all other oil producers and exporters totals less
than Iraqi exports.
Meanwhile, Iraq is pushing Russian and Chinese companies
to flout UN sanctions by developing its oil fields. They have
not been willing to do so. And in response, Iraqi officials
have indicated that contracts with them may no longer be
valid. Iraqi Minister of Oil Amr Muhammad Rashid has said,
according to the Iraqi weekly "Al-Rafidayn," that "Baghdad
has planned alternate measures to develop the oil fields'
because the Russians and Chinese 'have been reluctant to
honor their commitments.'"
Moreover, a French bank, BNP Paribas, reportedly plans
to open an account for Iraq's oil export payments, as
requested by Baghdad, "Oil Daily" reported on 1 November.
Iraq's flow of oil - about 2.3 million barrels a day --
means that this conversion to euros will help to offset the
direct investment outflows that have been undermining the
euro from its inception, according to the "Financial Times."
The paper quotes the head of currency research at Goldman
Sachs as saying "if others follow [this lead, that shift]
will be very important." (David Nissman)
BAGHDAD FAIR ATTRACTS 1500 FIRMS.
The Baghdad International Fair, which opened on 1
November, has attracted representatives of more than 1,500
firms from 45 countries, UPI reported. Also in attendance is
Jordanian Prime Minister Ali Abu Raghib, the first foreign
head of government to visit the fair since sanctions were
imposed in 1991. And most of the Western companies
represented appear to have come with at least the tacit
approval of their own governments. Belgium, Germany, and
Hungary, all allies of the U.S., sent exhibits along with
over 100 French companies.
One Western diplomat in Baghdad told the BBC that this
fair marks "a large qualitative step for Iraq, which has
managed to break the embargo. The large turnout and number of
planes have turned Baghdad into an open capital, not one
under siege." And the London "Times" noted on 2 November that
"President Saddam Hussein celebrated Iraq's diplomatic
resurrection yesterday when thousands of foreign politicians,
businessmen, and journalists descended on Baghdad, making a
mockery of the country's supposed decade-long isolation."
(David Nissman)
U.S., U.K. HAVE 'NO PROBLEM' WITH IRAQI DOMESTIC FLIGHTS.
Both Washington and London have indicated that there
would be no problem with the resumption of Iraqi domestic
commercial flights through the two no-fly zones in the
country, Reuters reported on 31 October. It quoted a Pentagon
spokesman as saying that "we don't see civilian flights as
posing a threat." But a U.S. State Department official said
that the Iraqi flights would be carefully monitored to ensure
that they did not present a threat to Iraqi citizens on the
ground, to Iraq's neighbors, or to U.S. and British planes
patrolling the no-fly zones. These reactions followed an
announcement by Iraqi Transport Minister Ahmad Murtada Ahmad
Khalil on 31 October that Iraq Airways flights would resume
on 5 November between Baghdad and Basra (600 kilometers to
the south) and Mosul (450 kilometers to the north. (David
Nissman)
MOSCOW TO HOST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON IRAQ.
The Russian government will host an international
roundtable on the problems of Iraq in mid-December, Aram
Shegunts, the director-general of the Committee for
International Cultural, Scientific, and Business Cooperation
with Iraq, told ITAR-TASS on 31 October. Shegunts said that
the conference will be attended by legislators,
representatives of the public, and diplomats from Russia,
Britain, the United States, and Iraq, despite the fact that
Britain had wanted the meeting to take place in Paris. The
meeting is to focus on the humanitarian situation in Iraq as
well as on possible measures to promote the lifting or
suspension of the international economic embargo on the
country. (David Nissman)
IRAQI ARMORED UNITS IN WESTERN IRAQ WITHDRAWING.
Israel's "Ha'aretz" reported on 1 November that the
Iraqi armored units deployed against Israel in western Iraq
are in the process of being dismantled and moved to other,
more distant, locations. Citing Israeli intelligence sources,
the paper said that the Republican Guard Hammurabi unit was
only "an expression of willingness to participate in a
general Arab-Israeli war should one be declared." Before the
withdrawal of the Republican Guard unit, the Israeli Defense
Forces had concluded that the likely point of attack was
Israel's nuclear reactor in Dimona. Thus, the air force was
on the alert to shoot down Iraqi planes should such an attack
occur. Recent events such as the Arab summit's decisions two
weeks ago, however, make such an attack unlikely. (David
Nissman)
TURKEY HOPES FOR CLOSER ECONOMIC TIES WITH IRAQ.
Turkish State Minister Tunca Toskay said in Baghdad on 1
November that Ankara wants "as big a share as possible" of
Iraqi trade, the "Turkish Daily News" reported. "We want to
be Iraq's fourth largest trading partner," he stressed.
Toskay added that the main aim of his visit was to set in
place the infrastructure for future Turkish investments in
Iraq. Turkey currently ranks seventh on the list of Iraq's
trading partners. The two countries are also discussing a
rail link between Syria, Iraq, and Turkey, as well as a new
border gate 10 kilometers south of the Habur gate, one deemed
too small to meet expected demands. (David Nissman)
JORDAN, IRAQ TO DISCUSS BUILDING OF OIL PIPELINE.
Jordanian Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Wa'il
Sabri said he will be discussing in Baghdad this week the
renewal of the oil agreement for next year as well as a
project to build an oil pipeline from the Iraqi town of Al-
Haditha to the town of Al-Zarqa, which is 30 kilometers north
of Amman, London's "Al-Hayat" reported on 2 November. Sabri
is accompanying Jordanian Prime Minister Ali Abu-Al-Raghib on
his visit to Baghdad. Jordan will also ask for the quantity
of oil received from Iraq to be increased to meet its growing
needs. Jordan receives Iraqi oil under a special UN
dispensation which is renewable annually. Under its present
agreement with Iraq, the price per barrel remains between $13
and $19 - regardless of the price on the international
market. (David Nissman)
CHINA COMPLETES POWER STATION IN IRAQ.
A Chinese company has completed a major power station
near Kirkuk, AP reported on 2 November. The 222-megawatt,
gas-powered station is the first such facility built in Iraq
since the Gulf War. The firm which built it, the Chinese
National Machinery and Equipment Import and Export Company,
is also taking part in the Baghdad International Trade Fair.
In addition to its construction work, this Chinese company
currently supplies spare parts to other Iraqi power stations.
And its engineers reportedly are rehabilitating another power
plant near Najaf in southern Iraq. The Chinese commercial
attache in Baghdad, Wang Shuan Xin, told AP that China's
efforts to reconstruct Iraq's infrastructure fall within UN
rules governing foreign trade with Iraq. Xiang Jun said this
Chinese company recently had signed a $200 million contract
for the construction of a new 1,200 megawatt power plant in
Samarra, 75 miles north of Baghdad, and is waiting for UN
approval to start work. (David Nissman)
BARZANI SEES NO NEED FOR MORE MEETINGS.
Mas'ud Barzani, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party
(KDP), told London's "Al-Zaman" on 26 October that there was
no need for a meeting with other Kurdish leaders to discuss
the meaning of the Washington agreement. He said that he
disagreed with the arguments of British officials who believe
that there is a need to make a confidence-building effort
between the two parties.
In other remarks, Barzani stated that "frankly speaking,
I believe that Turkmen, Assyrians, and others who live with
us in Kurdistan should enjoy their full rights." He added
that "I will safeguard the rights of Turkmen and others under
the umbrella of law and order, which includes everybody."
As far as his relations with the various Islamist
movements were concerned, Barzani said "our Islamists are
different from the Islamists you know in Algeria and
elsewhere." He added "we now have Islamic parties which
operate according to the law. These parties oppose the use of
force and violence in advocating their ideas. If certain
incidents have happened, these are isolated and individual
incidents, which will not be repeated. Kurdistan will never
be another Algeria." (David Nissman)
ANC ON U.S. COURT DECISION ON 'ASSYRIAN.'
The Assyrian National Congress says that it will appeal
a U.S. court decision on the Bureau of the Census's use of
the term "Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac" category as an ethnic
term (see "RFE/RL Iraq Report," 20 October 2000). The ANC
argues that the use of the above category was part of a
"conspiracy of 'divide and rule'" which was being used
against them because, "for the first time in our history, the
Assyrian people have been divided, not into religious
denominations, but into deadly 'ethnic nationalities.'" And
it contends in a press release that the "new category
(slashing category = Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac) will have the
effect of demeaning and diminishing a brave, resilient, and
oft-persecuted minority of biblical times to now - the
Assyrians. The actions of the Census Bureau are contrary to
the desires of an overwhelming majority of the Assyrian
people." (David Nissman)
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