¡¡¡¡BAGHDAD, February 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Iraq has accused the United Nations Compensations Committee of taking procedures contrary to the International law and accepting too many claims of war reparations, the official daily Al-Zawra reported on Thursday.

¡¡¡¡An unidentified Foreign Ministry official was quoted as saying that the U.N. committee has adopted regulations which entitle individuals, companies and organizations to bypass their governments and present war compensation demands to the committee.

¡¡¡¡Consequently, the U.N. committee takes into account too many compensation demands from individuals, companies or organizations, instead of accepting reparation claims from countries as a whole, the official complained.

¡¡¡¡"This is against the International Law," the official said.

¡¡¡¡According to the official, Gulf War compensation claims have risen to 2.6 million from individuals, companies, organizations andgovernments with a staggering value of 322 billion U.S. dollars.

¡¡¡¡The U.N. committee has approved 2.5 million compensation demandswhich are worth 35 billion dollars, and has paid a total of 13.67 billion dollars in war reparations, the official said.

¡¡¡¡The U.N. committee was formed after the Gulf War, which drove Iraqi occupation troops out of Kuwait. The committee has been responsible for processing and paying governments and companies which suffered losses following Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent Gulf War.

¡¡¡¡Under a U.N. oil-for-food program, launched in 1996, Iraq is allowed to bypass the sanctions imposed for its invasion of Kuwait and sell oil to buy food, medicine and other essentials.

¡¡¡¡The U.N. Compensations Committee receives 25 percent of Iraq's oil proceeds for war reparations, while 72 percent of Iraq's oil revenues have been allocated for the sanctions-hit country to buy food and medicine. The remainder goes to covering U.N. activities in Iraq. Enditem

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