UNITED NATIONS COMPENSATION COMMISSION PAYS OUT $186 MILLION

(Reissued as received.)

GENEVA, 8 April (UN Information Service) -- The United Nations Compensation Commission has made available today a total of $185,856,630.04 to 22 governments and two international organizations for distribution to 1,160 successful claimants.  Payment is being made in respect of claims in category “D” (claims of individuals for damages above $100,000), category “E” (claims of corporations, other private legal entities and public sector enterprises), and category “F” (claims of governments and international organizations) that were approved from the forty-eighth (June 2003) to the fifty-first (March 2004) sessions.  Payment is also being made in respect of 390 Palestinian late claims in category “C” (claims of individuals for damages up to $100,000) that were approved for payment by the Governing Council at the fifty-first session.

Today’s payment is being made in accordance with the temporary payment mechanism set out by the Governing Council in its decision 197, adopted at its forty-eighth session, under which up to $200 million from the Compensation Fund will be made available for the payment of claims every quarter.  In the present round of payment, all newly approved claims, i.e., claims approved for payment at the fifty-first session, will receive $800,000 or the principal amount of the award, if less.  Additional funds will be disbursed to the claimants whose claims were approved from the forty-eighth to the fiftieth sessions, also bringing the total payment to each of them up to $800,000, and with respect to some claims up to $900,000, depending on the order in which they had been approved.

The attached table lists the submitting entities receiving funds, and the amounts of money to be made available to each of them.

The present payment brings the overall amount of compensation made available to date by the United Nations Compensation Commission to $18,389,098,070.86.

The first phase of payments involved an initial payment of $2,500 to each successful individual claimant in categories “A” (claims of individuals for departures from Kuwait or Iraq) and “C”, as well as payment of the full amount to all successful individual claimants in category “B” (claims for death or serious personal injury).  In the second phase, payments of up to $100,000 were subsequently made available to approved claims in categories “A”, “C”, “D”, “E”, and “F” in two rounds comprising payment amounts of up to $25,000 and $75,000, respectively.  The second phase concludes payment of the full amount to all successful claimants in categories “A” and “C”.  A total of $8,395,853,381.93 has been made available to 1,503,197 claimants in all categories under the first and second phases of payments.

In the third phase of the payments mechanism, which commenced in October 2000, each successful claimant in categories “D”, “E” and “F” received an initial amount of up to $5 million in accordance with decision 100 of the Governing Council of the Commission.  Subsequent rounds of payments of up to $10 million were made to successful claimants in these categories of claims in the order in which they have been approved.  A total of $9,216,594,341.10 has been made available to 7,911 claimants in categories “D”, “E” and “F” under the third phase.

At the forty-eighth session, the Governing Council adopted decision 197, establishing a temporary payment mechanism in light of the reduction in the Compensation Fund’s income, following the adoption of Security Council resolution 1483 (2003), which provides in paragraph 21 that the Fund shall receive 5 per cent of all export sales of petroleum, petroleum products, and natural gas from Iraq.  Under this temporary payment mechanism, up to $200 million from the Compensation Fund will be made available for the payment of successful claims every quarter (from the forty-eighth to the fifty-first sessions, inclusive).  Successful claimants in all categories will receive an initial amount of $100,000 or the unpaid principal amount of the award, if less, with the disbursement of subsequent rounds of payments of $100,000 to successful claimants in all categories in the order in which they have been approved at the sessions described above, until the available funds for distribution have been exhausted.

The Governing Council monitors the distribution of payments to claimants by the relevant governments and international organizations.  Governments and international organizations are obligated to distribute funds to successful claimants expeditiously and to report to the Commission on payments made to claimants.  Any funds undistributed to claimants by governments and international organizations within 12 months of receiving payment shall be returned to the Commission.  Further payments to governments and international organizations shall be suspended where they fail to report on the distribution of funds to successful claimants or fail to return undistributed funds on time.

Further information about the Commission can be found on its Web site located at www.uncc.ch.

UNITED NATIONS COMPENSATION COMMISSION

Consolidated report of payments of categories “C”, “D”, “E” and “F” claims (8 April 2004)

Submitting entity	Category C	Category D	Category E	Category F	Totals
	Amount (US$)	Number of claims	Amount (US$)	Number of claims	Amount (US$)Number of claimsAmount (US$)Number of claimsAmount, (US$)Number of claims
1	Canada			862,019.88	5200,000.0011,062,019.886
2	China				200,000.001200,000.001
3	Cyprus				136,751.001136,751.001
4	France			45,755.09	1500,000.002545,755.093
5	Germany				592,959.004592,959.004
6	Israel			134,150.57	1200,000.001334,150.572
7	Italy			255,117.41	3400,000.002655,117.415
8	Japan				200,000.001200,000.001
9	Jordan			29,551,656.57	15029,551,656.57150
10	Kuwait			118,730,068.36	42815,205,983.0088600,000.003134,536,051.36519
11	Lebanon			262,417.96	4262,417.964
12	Netherlands			110,793.87	1110,793.871
13	Republic of Korea				400,000.002400,000.002
14	Russian Federation			21,540.42	121,540.421
15	Saudi Arabia			4,094,427.18	282,838.791200,000.0014,297,265.9730
16	Singapore				9,466.0019,466.001
17	Sweden				63,042.00163,042.001
18	Switzerland				182,990.001182,990.001
19	Thailand			5,901.73	15,901.731
20	United Kingdom			44,029.50	31,608,563.0071,652,592.5010
21	United States			1,588,059.97	141,409,257.0082,997,316.9722
22	Palestine	7,822,582.33	390		7,822,582.33390
23	UNDP Washington			137,461.22	3137,461.223
24	UNRWA Gaza			78,798.19	178,798.191
	Total	7,822,582.33	390	155,922,197.92	64421,311,849.79122800,000.004185,856,630.041,160

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