BUDDY CAN YOU SPARE A DIME?
The Madrid conference called to solicit donors to the reconstruction of Iraq failed to raise the World Bank target of $34 billion. The conference, organised by the US and its Iraqi administration, was sabotaged by German and French refusal to pay. 'I think these two countries would have better served the cause of the international community if they had accepted to make additional financial contributions,' a bad-tempered Colin Powell told French newspaper Le Figaro.
The Franco-German refusal dates back to the German elections in August 2002, when Chancellor Schroeder hit upon a theme that appealed to a sense of national irritation 'We're not available for adventures, and the time of cheque book diplomacy is over once and for all'. Schroeder's complaints make more sense in the context of the last Gulf War. In 1990-91 Germany paid 18 billion DM (10.3 billion DM to the US, 800 million DM to the UK, 300 million DM to France). Aid for refugees and 'frontline nations' (Egypt, Turkey and Jordan) brought the bill up to 25 billion DM. At that time, Germany was already saddled with extraordinary costs of unification, and the bill for fighting the Gulf War, which it bore with the other non-combatant, Japan, seemed to many like little more than a shake-down.
Unlike the funding of the 1991 Gulf War, this week's donor conference underlined America's failure to create a consensus behind the war. Pointing out that many of the sums, like Saudi Arabia's $500 million, are not aid but loans, El Pais reported that 'Rather than a meeting of donors, the gathering in Madrid was a conference of moneylenders. More than two-thirds of what was collected will have to be paid back.' America's face was saved to some extent by Japan's apparently generous $5 billion, though this, too, had a large loan element. Struggling to sound good, European Commissioner Chris Patten talked up the EU contribution of $700 million, though the lion's share of that is coming from the UK. 'It is ironic that the aggressors first ruined the country and now they are begging others to help in the construction process,' read a waspish leader in the Pakistan Observer.
Most pointedly, though, the donor conference failed to do what the previous Gulf War funding did, to get Germany to pay for America's wars. Germany and France will be put under pressure later to reschedule or forgive its extensive debt with Iraq.
Contributions
US 22-3 billion Japan 5 billion World Bank 3-5 billion IMF 2.5-4.25 billion EU 700 million UK 500 million Saudis 500 million loan
World Bank target 34 billion Iraq's debts 120 billion
-- James Heartfield