Iraq: go-ahead for 'oil-for-food' agreement.

The Security Council on 9 December gave the go-ahead for implementation of a long-delayed "oil-for-food" agreement with Iraq, enabling that country to sell a limited amount of oil on the world market for the first time since sanctions were imposed following Iraq's August 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Under the agreement concluded in May, but held up by complexities and disputes over implementation, Iraq will be able to sell up to $2 billion of Iraqi petroleum and petroleum products over the next six months. Most of the revenues from the sale will be used to purchase humanitarian supplies, including food, medicines and other health supplies for the civilian population.

Both the oil sales and the purchase of humanitarian supplies are to be done under stringent monitoring by the United Nations. The first report on Iraq's compliance is due in 90 days. If all goes well over the next six months, the Council may then decide to renew the agreement.

The money earned from the limited oil sales will be banked through a United Nations-administered escrow account at a New York branch of Banque Nationale de Paris. About $260 million will be earmarked for northern Iraq, where the Kurdish population is located. Another $600 million will go to a compensation fund established to aid victims of Iraq's 1990 aggression against Kuwait. The rest will be distributed around Iraq, with the exception of $20 million that will go to the operating expenses of the Special Commission - the body set up to oversee the destruction of Iraqi weapons (see graph).

The cumulative effects of war, economic sanctions, hyper-inflation, unemployment and a 30-per cent drop in crop production were starting to exact a terrible humanitarian toll, especially among women and children, more than half of whom were receiving less than 50 per cent of their caloric needs. "Malnutrition, particularly among children under five, has become rampant. In the north, the effects of the recent conflict have further worsened the situation", the appeal warned.

Human rights

On 15 October, Max van der Stoel, Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iraq...