Permanent Mission of India Geneva Statement by Ms. Sarita Bali

Permanent

Mission

of

India

Geneva

Statement

by Ms.

Sarita

Bali,

Joint

Secretary

(Special

Kuwait

Cell),

Ministry

of

External

Affairs

at the

59

th

Session

of the

Governing

Council

of the

UNCC

at

Geneva,

7

March

2006

Mr.Chairman,

It is

indeed

a

privilege

for me to

make

a

presentation before

the

Governing

Council,

and at the

outset,

I

would like

to

thank

the

Governing Council

for

providing

me

this

opportunity.

We had the

privilege

of

appearing before

the

esteemed

Governing Council earlier

also

and we are

thankful

of the

excellent

cooperation

that

we

have received from

the

UNCC

towards

settlement

of the

various

categories

of the

claims.

However,

as

mentioned

during

our

intervention

in the

last session there

are

certain

outstanding

issues

that

we

would like

the

esteemed Governing

Council

to

consider sympathetically,

in

view

of the

humanitarian dimensions

of

these

issues.

The

issues basically pertain

to

untraced claims, late claims,

duplicate claims

and

recovery

of

compensation.

As

submitted

in our

intervention last year, while

the

Government

of

India

has

made every

possible

attempt

to

disburse

the

awarded

amount

to our

claimants

efficiently

and

expeditiously, there

are

still over 8600 untraced

claimants.

Despite serious efforts

we

have been unable

to

reach

them

so

far.

An

approved

amount

of

approximately

30

million

US

Dollars

is

thus lying

with

the

UNCC

for

disbursement

to

these claimants. There

are

several reasons behind

our

inability

to

locate these successful claimants. Which

we

have

highlighted

in the

past.

Mr.

Chairman,

the

Government

of

India

has

been making serious efforts

over

the

years

and is

determined

to

locate these claimants.

We

appeared before

the

Governing Council last year

and

apprised

you of the

special programme

that

out

Government

initiated,

as

part

of our

outreach efforts,

to

locate these

claimants.

We are

very optimistic that given some more

time,

we

would

be

able

to

trace

out a

large number

of the

remaining claimants. This would

be

possible

provided

the

deadline could

be

extended

by

another year

to 30

September 2007.

Considering

the

large number

of

claimants

and the

vast geographical spread

involved,

an

extension

of

this deadline would help

us in

ensuring comprehensive

success

of our

efforts

and to

provide justice

to the

innocent victims.

On

late claims, approximately 50,000 claimant have been denied

payments

owing

to the

fact that they

had

applied

on

Government forms

and not

on

UNCC

forms;

in

many

cases

their

forms

have

apparently been misplaced.

There

is

another category

of

claimants

who

applied

on

UNCC

forms

and

submitted

the

forms

in

Embassy

of

India,

Kuwait

but

somehow

their

forms were

lost

in

transit. These claimants

possess

receipts from Embassy

of

India,

Kuwait

of

having deposited these forms

in

time. These persons would "number

a few

hundred

and we

urge

that

they

also

be

considered eligible

to

reapply.

We

would

like

concessions

on the

issue

so

that

justice

is

done

to the

poor

illiterate

victims

of

war,

on

humanitarian

grounds.

There

are 775

duplicate

claims

of

which

500 had

been

confirmed

by us as

duplicate.

In

view

of a

deadline imposed

by the

UNCC

of

15

th

February 2006,

we

have

not

been able

to

verify

275

claims.

We

would

like

to

seek more

time.

The

four

designated disbursing banks

in

India

are

also experiencing

difficulties

due to

long

and

time

consuming process involved

in

recalling funds

from

UNCC

for

disbursement

to the

traced claimants.

No

funds have been

received

by our

banks since October 2005. This

assumes

importance

in

view

of

the

approaching deadline

of

September 2006.

One

possible solution

to

this

problem

could

be to

open

an

Overseas

Escrow

Account,

as

reiterated

by us

last

time,

in

favour

of

these designated disbursing banks where

this

undisbursed

amount

of

approximately

30

million

US

Dollars could

be

deposited

to be

used

exclusively

for

disbursement

to the

located successful claimants. Procedural

modalities could

be

worked

out to the

satisfaction

of the

UNCC.

In

view

of the

time

constraint,

we

hope

that

UNCC

would expedite

the

disbursement process.

Finally,

Mr.

Chairman,

I

would

like

to

submit

that

we

have exercised

utmost care

and

caution

to

ensure that

excess

or

fake payments

are

avoided.

In

some

cases

we

have also effected recoveries where

the

claimants

had

retained

their

accounts

with

the

banks

and had not

withdrawn

the

entire

amount.

We are

encountering

difficulties

in

locating those claimants

who

have

closed their bank

accounts

and

moved

out of

their

indicated coordinates.

We

will however continue

to

make every possible effort

in

recovering these

excess

payments.

Mr.

Chairman,

in

concluding,

I

would like

to

once again thank

the

UNCC

for

its

efforts

in

assisting

the

affected

Indian

nationals.

I

hope

that

our

request

for

an

extension

in the

deadline

for

locating

the

missing claimants

by one

year,

and

opening

of an

escrow account

will

be

considered sympathetically

by the

Governing Council.

We

look forward

to our

continued close cooperation

with

the

Commission.

Thank you,

Mr.

Chairman.