Despite Regime Change, Kuwait Debts Keep Mounting

[struggle4progress]

Haider Rizvi

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 21 (IPS) - International social justice groups are calling on the United Nations to stop paying out millions of dollars in Iraqi oil revenues to Kuwaiti businesses and individuals as war reparations for Saddam Hussein's invasion of that country 15 years ago. <snip>

”The continued claims of war reparations is another form of violence against Iraqis,” adds Jubilee Iraq, a Britain-based charity.

The joint statement by the anti-war U.S. and European groups comes ahead of a U.N. meeting in Geneva next week that will decide which claims for war reparations relating to the occupation of Kuwait in 1990-91 are to be paid by Iraq, and in what amounts.

So far, the U.N. Compensation Commission, a body created as a subsidiary organ of the 15-member Security Council in 1991, has awarded compensation of more than 52 billion dollars to individuals and businesses who filed claims for losses during the war. <snip>

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=29171

[FloridaPat]

1. Everyone is suppose to forgive Iraq of war debts - except Kuwait?

What a farce. This invasion gets wierder by the day.

[struggle4progress]

3. Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery

State of Kuwait < Country-by-Country Reports >

The State of Kuwait

[lovuian]

2. Like Kuwait doesn't have enough money!!!

Another rape of the Iraqii people of their money!!!

[struggle4progress]

4. Trafficking and forced labour of children in the Gulf region

United Nations Commission on Human Rights
Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights
Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery
30th Session
Geneva 6-10 June 2005

Children continue to be trafficked from countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sudan and Yemen to be used as camel jockeys in the UAE. Furthermore, Anti-Slavery International also has evidence that children are also being trafficked to be used as camel jockeys in other Gulf states including Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and also internally in Sudan.

The use of children as jockeys in camel racing is itself extremely dangerous and can result in serious injury and even death. Some children are also abused by the traffickers and employers, for example by depriving them of food and beating them. The children's separation from their families and their transportation to a country where the people, culture and usually the language are completely unknown leaves them dependent on their employers and de facto forced labourers.

The trafficking of children for use as camel jockeys is prohibited by International Labour Organization Conventions 29 and 182 and by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, all of which have been ratified by the UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Sudan. It is also prohibited under ILO Convention 138, which has been ratified by the UAE, Kuwait and Sudan. <snip>

Evidence of child camel jockeys beyond the UAE

As has already been indicated, there is evidence that children are being trafficked and used as camel jockeys in Kuwait, Oman and Qatar, and also within Sudan. Some of this evidence is outlined below:

<snip> The 2005 report of the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, notes a large amount of cases received concerning the issue of trafficking of children to be used as camel jockeys. These include the case of A.I.A., a child trafficked from Sudan to Abu Dhabi when he was five years old in 1998. He was used as a camel jockey in Kuwait as well as the UAE and ended up in Doha, from where he returned home in February 2004.

On 2 March 2003, The Denver Post carried a feature following a journalist and photographer who spent seven days at the Kuwait Camel Racing Club in Sulaibiya, outside Kuwait City. They reported that around 15-30 children, mostly African, regularly trained and raced at the club and lived in tents nearby. The photographs accompanying the piece clearly show young children riding camels, training, and in the camps. <snip>

http://www.antislavery.org/archive/submission/submission2005-cameljockeys.htm