Odious Debts Online

October 8, 2004

Iraq advocacy group, the Iraqi-Canadian Society, issued letters this week to the leaders of France, Germany, and Russia requesting 100 percent debt cancellation for Iraq. Society chairman, Dr. Shakir Issa, asked each leader individually to make details of their debt claims public so that their own citizens could judge for themselves the “kind of financing your government provided to the Saddam regime.” Dr. Issa charges all three governments with supplying Iraq with weapons, military materials, and equipment he alleges Saddam used in wars against neighbouring countries. “The Iraqi people have been by far the greatest victims of Saddam’s aggression,” said Dr. Issa. “It is not fair or just to ask them to pay the debt and reparations for their tormentor’s crimes.”