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Strategies & Market Trends : India Coffee House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (3437)	12/25/1998 7:32:00 PM
From: Mohan Marette	Respond to of 12475

<International Affairs> Desert Games according to Saeed Naqvi. indian-express.com Friday, December 25, 1998 The Anglo-American desert games Saeed Naqvi -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The comprehensive plan to pulverise Iraq also includes a crippling compensations regime. The UN Compensations Commission has received claims totaling $ 250 billion. Of these, 50 percent would go to Kuwait for damages it suffered during the Iraqi occupation in 1990. The UN lays claims to 30 percent of this bill. The remainder is to be distributed to claimants from 94 countries and for the most essential imports for Iraq like medicines. Obviously, the asserted value of these claims is disputed by Iraq. The Compensations Commission is making its own evaluation of what the value of the claims realistically ought to be. But in the meantime Iraq is being made to pay through its nose an exact 30 percent of whatever it earns by way of oil revenues under the oil-for-food programme cleared by the UN. Until last year Iraq could sell oil up to $ 2 billion for its oil-for-food programme. In other words, $ 600 million was siphoned off by the UN itself to sustain the humanitarian programmes of the UN and, of course,UNSCOM. Just consider the irony. Richard Butler, chairman of UNSCOM, whose doctored report provided the Americans with the pretext to launch the latest wave of air strikes, actually receives his salary from money generated by the sale of Iraqi oil. The amount of oil Iraq can sell now has been increased to the equivalent of $ 5.2 billion. Iraq maintains that its capacity to produce so much oil is hampered by the disrepair into which its rigs have fallen. But even so, supposing Iraq can sell oil to the tune of $ 4 billion, 1.2 billion would go towards servicing the UN's claims. If all of Iraq's oil wells were working with reasonable efficiency, the country could produce $ 20 billion worth of oil once sanctions were lifted. But of $ 20 billion, $ 6 billion would go towards the UN account and heaven knows how much the Compensations Commission would siphon off towards Kuwait. It is a Catch 22 situation for Iraq: if sanctions continue, its 21 million people suffer unspeakable want. But if sanctions are lifted,the country's known reserves of oil are depleted at faster pace and part beneficiaries of the sale proceeds are Kuwait, 94 other countries and the UN's Iraq- and Kuwait-related operations. To terminate the suffering of the people of Iraq, it is absolutely essential that sanctions are lifted. But that step by itself will not be enough. It will have to be accompanied by a considerable softening of the sanctions regime. At the end of Operation Desert Fox, what has the Anglo-American combine gained? A total of 62 Republican guards killed and a few hundred wounded? The damage to civilian life and property has been extensive. At least this is the testimony of Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz. Even if we await the assessments of independent sources, it is unlikely that these will approximate to the Anglo-American exaggerations. Americans can put it down to President Clinton's impeachment difficulties, but what was the British reason for so shrill and excited a participation in the operations? It wouldbe a sobering experience for Prime Minister Tony Blair to replay the video clips of the simulated vigour of those battle-damage reports outside 10 Downing Street. Since the second World War, the US, and Britain by association, have dominated the world order. Just remember those days immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Doubts were being raised about the future of NATO and American role in it. Since the Soviet collapse was accompanied by German reunification, the spectre of Axis and the Allies began to exercise western minds. The Bosnian war started in 1992. Much earlier, Margaret Thatcher during a visit to Finland in 1990 was asked by reporters: ''Now that the Soviet Union has collapsed, why does Britain need its nuclear arsenal?'' Pat came the reply: ''Because we still have a problem in the Middle East.'' This was before Iraq's occupation of Kuwait. Even though a reluctant Mitterrand joined the 1990-91 Gulf coalition in the name of European unity, it was the Anglo-American duet thatprosecuted the war. Their primacy in a post-Soviet global redistribution of power was thus ensured. If German unity loomed large in 1990, European unity with a common currency from next week (Britain is outside the currency) is the dominant theme today. There is great dynamism both within Europe and in Europe's external interests, with Britain clutching onto its exclusive claims on American attention. When the BBC interviewed the ''brave'' British Tornado pilots in Kuwait after their successful sorties in Iraq, the pilots had their backs to the camera, scared of being identified by the people. Why this fear if they were operating on behalf of the people of Kuwait where the RAF Tornado squadron sparked? Why do American embassies have to be shut in various parts of the world if the US is busy spreading freedom and liberty worldwide? The chief of Kuwaiti Armed Forces was away in Latin America when Operation Desert Fox was lunched from Kuwati territory. Deep anger among Arab populations undermines undemocratic, pro-west regimes. This is the limited bonus from Desert Fox but not the one that the British and the Americans intended to derive. Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.