Donnerstag, 28.10.2021 / 10:04 Uhr

UN-Hilfsgelder für Assads Regime

Von
Thomas von der Osten-Sacken

Es ist keineswegs das erste Mal, dass Hilfsgelder der UN im Nahen Osten dabei helfen, abgehalfterte Halsabschneiderregimes über Wasser zu halten. Schon der ganze "Oil for Food" Deal mit Saddam Hussein in den 90ern war ein einziger Skandal, bei dem nicht nur das Regime in Bagdad sich die Taschen vollstopfte, sondern auch allerlei andere internationale Akteure bis hin zum Sohn des damaligen UN-Generalsekretärs, Kofi Annan.

Auch damals waren es unter anderem künstliche Wechselkurse, von denen Saddams Regime profitierte. Nicht anders ist es bei der Hilfe für Syrien:

"The Syrian government is siphoning off millions of dollars of foreign aid by forcing UN agencies to use a lower exchange rate, according to new research.

The Central Bank of Syria, which is sanctioned by the UK, US and EU, in effect made $60m (£44m) in 2020 by pocketing $0.51 of every aid dollar sent to Syria, making UN contracts one of the biggest money-making avenues for President Bashar al-Assad and his government, researchers from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Operations & Policy Center thinktank and the Center for Operational Analysis and Research found.

Hit by new US sanctions and the collapse of the banking system in neighbouring Lebanon, cash-strapped Damascus is relying increasingly on unorthodox methods for raising funds – money either pocketed by officials in Damascus for their own personal wealth, or put towards the 10-year-old war effort.

Researchers analysed hundreds of UN contracts to procure goods and services for people living in government-held areas of Syria, where more than 90% of the population are living in poverty since the Syrian pound, or lira, crashed last year."