UN pays out $610 million from Iraqi oil fund

October 30, 2009 by Infowars Ireland

sg.news.yahoo.com

GENEVA – The U.N. panel overseeing compensation for victims of Iraq’s 1990 Kuwait invasion said Thursday it has paid $610 million from Iraqi oil funds to cover losses from the war.

The U.N. Compensation Commission said the money would go to five private corporations and five government or international bodies. It did not disclose the identities of the claimants.

The commission, made up of the 15 U.N. Security Council member countries, has so far paid out over $28 billion. Another $24 billion is earmarked to go to another 10 unidentified claimants.

Money to pay the claims comes from Iraqi oil sales.

Until the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003, the commission received 25 percent of the proceeds from the U.N. oil-for-food program, which allowed the former Iraqi regime to sell oil and buy food, medicine and other humanitarian goods despite international sanctions.

Since the invasion, the amount the commission receives from Iraqi oil exports has been reduced to 5 percent.

Last year, the commission asked member nations to help it recover more than $80 million in overpayments made to several thousand claimants.