Probe International

(April 18, 2003) There is a moral dimension to the Iraqi debt issue that deserves a good deal more discussion than it has gotten so far. Should those who lend money to despots expect to get their money back if the despot is toppled?

(April 18, 2003) In this paper, Hishow argues that Russia has rejected the American proposal for debt relief in Iraq and favours using Iraq’s debt to drive negotiations to improve its own economic position in post-Saddam Iraq. [Published in German]

(April 17, 2003)Chairman of the Duma’s Committee on the State Debt and Foreign Assets, Vladimir Nikitin, called the American proposals for debt relief "more than bizarre". Iraq’s debt to Russia – some "well verified and grounded" $8 billion – is not negotiable.

(April 17, 2003) Outside Iraq, the usual repositories of economic data, like the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund, have scant knowledge of what has been going on inside the country since the 1980s.

(April 17, 2003) Saddam Hussein used much of the borrowed money to pay for his wars against Iran and Kuwait and his repressive forces…But the rules are there: tyrannies may fall, but their debts live on.

(April 17, 2003) Outstanding public-sector loans to Iraq are fast becoming another contentious issue between the US and the so-called coalition of the unwilling. Japan is also an interested player, holding a total of 673 billion yen in outstanding loans to Iraq.

(April 16, 2003) There is no entitlement for France, Germany, Russia and the U.N. They did all in their power to keep Saddam Hussein in power, which makes them accessories to tyranny and war crimes.

(April 15, 2003) If Mr. Snow’s remarks were muddling, those of Mr. Wolfowitz were mischievous. Iraq’s debt problem is a serious issue. It should not get mixed up in political point-scoring.