Russia to pursue its interests in Iraq
MOSCOW - Russia has written off more debts of Iraq that other members of the Paris Club, and its interests in Iraq should be taken into account, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared at a meeting with the Prime Minister of Iraq. The Russian President remarked that Russia had written off the debts because of solidarity, however, it assumed that Russian companies' interests would be taken into account by the Iraqi leadership and the future government after the elections in Iraq, Rossiya (Russia) television reported. Earlier Putin announced that in total, Russia would write off about 90 percent of Iraq's debt.
Additionally, the Russian President commented on the forthcoming elections in Iraq, scheduled for January 30, 2005. "I see no way to organize elections in a country that is completely occupied by foreign forces but at the same time I see no way for you to independently restore the country and prevent its disintegration," Putin pointed out.
Russian Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin reported earlier that following the writing off of debts, the amount of Iraqi debt to Russia would be between $700m and $1bn. "The Iraqi debts are being verified now, and as a result, the debt will be restructured," the minister said. According to Kudrin, the repayment of Iraq's debts to Russia is to be delayed for three years.
Dutchman to face charges over Iraqi genocide Chemicals supplied killed 5000 Kurds
AMSTERDAM Prosecutors said yesterday they would charge a 62-year-old Dutchman as an accomplice to genocide and other war crimes for supplying Saddam Hussein's regime with lethal chemicals used in the 1988 chemical attack on the Kurdish town of Halabjah.
Wim de Bruin of the national prosecutor's office said the man, who was arrested in Amsterdam on Monday, would face charges "for violating the laws of war and involvement in genocide".
"The man is suspected of delivering thousands of tons of raw materials for chemical weapons to the former regime in Baghdad between 1984 and 1988," prosecutors said in a statement.
About 5000 civilians died in the infamous chemical attack.
The man was not named by prosecutors, but was identified by Dutch media as Frans van Anraat, a chemicals dealer.
Prosecutors said the man had been a suspect since 1989, when he was arrested in Milan, Italy, at the request of the US government.
He was later released and fled to Iraq, where he remained until 2003. After the US-led invasion in March 2003, he returned to the Netherlands via Syria.
The United Nations suspects the man was a major chemicals supplier to Saddam's regime, having made 36 separate shipments, including raw materials for nerve gas and mustard gas originating in the US and Japan.
The chemicals were shipped via Antwerp, Belgium, through Aqaba in Jordan before reaching Iraq, the prosecution statement said.
Authorities in the US, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and Jordan helped in the investigation, and witnesses were interviewed in the UK, Denmark, Jordan and the Netherlands, prosecutors said.
In a 2003 interview with Dutch television programme, Netwerk, Anraat said he had shipped materials to Iraq but was innocent of wrongdoing.
"This was not my main business, this is something I did in passing," he said.
"Somewhere once back then, I got the request whether I could deliver certain products to them, which they needed.
"And because I had a very good relationship with the (Iraqi) oil ministry, and that's where the request came from, I tried to see if I could do it," he said.
"And that was successful and we did deliver some materials."
Prosecutors said Anraat "knew the destination and ultimate purpose of the materials he was shipping". Sapa-AFP