Скачать или смотреть IRAQ: BAGHDAD: UN TO VOTE ON NEW SANCTIONS PLAN

(14 Apr 1995) Arabic/Nat

The United Nations Security Council is expected to vote Friday on a new plan being offered by The United States and its allies for Iraq to
sell oil to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies for its people.

However Iraq has failed to indicate if would accept such a proposal having rejected a similar offer made in 1991.

Economic sanctions against Iraq may not prevent President Saddam Hussein from constructing new palaces to live in but they are having a painful effect on the lives of ordinary Iraqis.

The chances for lifting sanctions against Iraq - which include a ban on oil sales - dimmed this week after U.N. weapons inspectors said the country may be making germ warfare agents.

Each report about Iraq's compliance to the sanctions can mean the difference between affording food for a day or a week.

SOUNDBITE:
"Nothing is on our side. Whenever the report is against us prices shoot up and this will make the people suffer."
SUPER CAPTION: Haj Ali Mohammed Jaber, Shop owner.

Most Iraqis pray that its government will bring to an end the sanctions and offer the people greater hope for the future.

SOUNDBITE:
"When the news is positive the prices decrease. I mean the prices of the commodities will become cheaper and vice versa."
SUPER CAPTION: Kadahan Al Laami, Retired Government official.

There are no official figures for inflation in Iraq.

But Iraq is suffering from hyper-inflation, the Iraqi Dinar has devaluated more than three thousand times since the economic sanctions were imposed in 1991.

Local auto repair businesses have been forced to become more
resourceful by reconditioning spare parts because the cost of new parts are too expensive.

The price of a new car shock absorber has multiplied four thousand times while the cost of a new car window seal has increased 20 times.

SOUNDBITE:
"We have stock in this market, but this stock is decreasing day after day. We also import from Jordan and we take parts from merchants.
SUPER CAPTION: Sami Mahdi Souliman, Shop owner.

Business owners in Industry, Commerce and Agriculture are watching their profit margins fall by the day.

The cost of producing even the most basic spare parts for industry has become expensive which many people can no longer afford.

SOUNDBITE:
As long as the embargo is imposed upon us, we are witnessing a state of recession which is increasing."
SUPER CAPTION: Professor Humam Shamaa, Professor of Economic Finance, Baghdad University.

Food is the priority for everybody now, items like new clothes are now considered a luxury.

SOUNDBITE:
" Seriously, people are after food rather than buying clothes."
SUPER CAPTION: Yassien Nouri, Shop owner "Dina Fashions".

The latest UN proposal would allow oil exports as long as
U.N. monitors certify that Iraq is ensuring "equitable" distribution of the supplies to its 18 million people.

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