*EPF406 08/17/00
Security Council Urges Iraq to Cooperate on Kuwaiti Missing
(Council members concerned about plight of Kuwaitis, their families) (500)
By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent

United Nations -- The Security Council August 17 urged Iraq "to fully cooperate" with the U.N. special envoy and other agencies to resolve the problem of Kuwaiti POWs and other persons missing since the Gulf War.

After a private meeting with Ambassador Yuli Vorontsov, the U.N. coordinator for the Kuwaiti POW issue, the council issued a brief statement through its president, Ambassador Agam Hasmy of Malaysia.

"Members of the council expressed their deep concern at the plight of the missing Kuwaiti and third-country nationals and their families and expressed their hope that this issue would be dealt with as a strictly humanitarian one by all sides concerned," Hasmy said.

"In this respect, members of the council stressed the importance of dialogue among all parties, including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Tripartite Commission, and urged Iraq to fully cooperate with Ambassador Vorontsov and resume cooperation with all other agencies and bodies dealing with this issue," the president said.

After the Gulf War cease-fire agreement in 1991, some 6,000 Kuwaiti POWs were repatriated through the ICRC, the Tripartite Commission and other channels with Iraq's participation. However, more than 600 Kuwaiti and other nationals as well as 17 Saudis whose names were submitted by Saudi Arabia have remained unaccounted for. Of those, 592 are civilians.

Iraq has provided no information since 1998 and has stopped participating in the Tripartite Commission, which was set up in 1991 to deal with the issue, as well.

A full accounting of Kuwaiti POWs and missing is one of the criteria that must be met for the lifting of economic sanctions on Iraq.

In his last report to the council in late April, Vorontsov said that "the fate of Kuwaiti and other nationals unaccounted for -- whether prisoners of war, civilian detainees or missing persons -- is a humanitarian tragedy which needs highest attention of all parties involved and concerned."

"The bereaved family members continue to seek closure of the file after nine years of uncertainty, not knowing the fate of their loved ones, and women not knowing what their status is -- wives or widows," Vorontsov wrote. "It is important to bring about concrete results -- to repatriate to Kuwait the missing people who are still alive or to recover the mortal remains for return to the families."

Vorontsov said, "Iraq's response to the issue of missing persons, as a purely humanitarian one, would become a yardstick by which the international community would measure Iraq's position on other outstanding problems."

Vorontsov also has examined some of the files submitted by Kuwait, which include well-documented requests that include eyewitness testimonies and official Iraqi arrest records, according to his April report.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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