Iraq wants UNSC to extend immunity for DFI beyond 2010

UNITED NATIONS, July 8 (KUNA)

Ahead of a quarterly report by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI) and a Security Council meeting on the issue next Monday, Iraqi Ambassador Hamid Al-Bayati met late Wednesday with the UN Chief to seek continued immunity for the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI) after it expires on December 31, 2010, and to inform him that his government decided to keep the Fund in the US Federal Reserve in New York with or without UN immunity.
“Iraq may need the council to extend the DFI (immunity) beyond December 2010. But even if an extension was not possible, Iraq is making arrangements for beyond December 2010.
The Iraqi Government’s decision is that the DFI remains in the US Federal Reserve in New York, under another name, and five percent of the Iraqi oil revenues will continue to be paid to the UN Compensation Fund, as usual, without changes,” Al-Bayati told KUNA following the meeting. Ban recommended to the council in his report on the issue last April not to provide immunity to the Fund beyond 2010. UN immunity shields Iraq from its debtors.
The DFI was established by the council in 2003 to hold the proceeds of oil sales from Iraq and meet the country’s humanitarian needs. It is being monitored by the International Advisory and Monitoring Board (IAMB) to ensure transparency. The council also decided in 2003 that five percent of the proceeds be deposited into the Geneva-based Compensation Fund to compensate the victims of Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait in August 1990.
Al-Bayati said that in order to put an end to the DFI it created in 2003, the council has to meet again at the end of December and adopt another resolution.
“At that time, Iraq will be free to open a Fund anywhere, but the Government decided to keep the Fund in the US Federal Reserve in New York with the same arrangements, including the payment of five percent to the Compensation Fund. But I understand the successor Fund of the DFI will carry another name, since the DFI was a name given by the council,” he said. The Iraqi Ambassador also said that the IAMB will also disappear with the DFI, adding that the successor Fund will be monitored by the Iraqi Committee of Financial Experts (COFE).
He added that COFE Chairman Abdelbasit Turki Said Al-Bayati is scheduled to address the council next Monday when the members discuss the issue.
The council voted unanimously last December to extend the DFI until December 31, 2010 and to review it in mid-year at the request of Iraq. It requested Iraq at the same time to put in place an action plan and timeline for the transition to a post DFI mechanism beginning 2011. The action plan and timeline were conveyed to the council recently in a letter by Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari. (end) sj.bz.
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