POLITICS: U.N. in Fruitless Search for Missing Kuwaitis and Saudis

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 20 2001 (IPS) - More than 10 years after the Gulf War, the United Nations continues to search for some 600 Kuwaitis and Saudis who remain unaccounted for.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan says he is frustrated by Iraq’s refusal to cooperate with the world body in its search for the missing persons.

Ambassador Yuli Vorontsov of Russia, U.N. special coordinator, says he cannot report any “tangible progress” in the search – although he was assigned the task in April 2000.

U.N. officials and diplomats say they believe the missing persons, most of them Kuwaitis, are being held in Iraqi jails – effectively, as prisoners of war (POWs).

Iraqi Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs Riyadh al-Qaysi dismisses the notion that Iraq is still holding POWs. The accusations, he says, are being raised in international forums “for the purpose of ensuring that the (United Nations) embargo be maintained against Iraq.”

Iraq, on the other hand, claims that some of its own nationals are missing and may be held as POWs by Kuwait.

The 11-year-old U.N. embargo was imposed just after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 and was designed to punish the regime of President Saddam Hussein for violating its neighbour’s national sovereignty.

Among the many conditions for lifting the sanctions are: the destruction of all nuclear, biological and chemical weapons in Iraq; the elimination of the means of production of these weapons; the repatriation of all POWs; and the return of missing Kuwaiti property, including artefacts and military equipment allegedly stolen by the Iraqi armed forces during their brief occupation of Kuwait.

The United States has threatened to veto any attempts to lift sanctions until Iraq complies with all of the conditions, laid down by the U.N. Security Council.

Annan, in a new report to the Security Council, says that “it is regrettable that the government of Iraq is still unwilling to cooperate” with Vorontsov.

“Neverthless, I am most grateful that all interlocutors of the Special Coordinator strongly reiterated their determination and commitment to assist in any way possible in the resolution of this humanitarian issue,” he adds.

Annan also says that Iraq “should appreciate the fact that the international communituy is not selective, and that all cases of missing persons, whether Kuwaiti, Saudi, Iraqi, or others would be addressed.”

“As the government of Iraq claims to seek a resolution to the issue of its own missing nationals, it is essential that it exercise an appropriate and sensitive understanding of the position held by the government of Kuwait and other countries concerned,” his report states.

Annan concludes that his Special Coordinator “will not be able to achieve what he is mandated to accomplish unless and until the Iraqi leadership substantially changes its current attitude.”

The more than 600 persons declared missing include a Saudi pilot, Muhammad Salih Nazirah, and a U.S. pilot, Michael Speicher, believed to have been shot down inside Iraq.

The Iraqis have told the United States that Speicher is not an Iraqi POW and may have been killed in action. But Washington has refused to accept this explanation.

Meanwhile, the government of Kuwait also has complained that Iraq still holds millions of dollars worth of military equipment and artefacts, including items stolen from the archives of the offices of the Emir, the prime minister, the Cabinet and the foreign ministry.

Although Iraq has returned “a substantial quantity of Kuwaiti property”, the United Nations says many items remain in Iraqi possession, “which Iraq is under obligation to return to Kuwait.”

In a letter to the world body about two years ago, the Kuwaitis said that among the items missing were files containing tens of thousands of communications, including confidential documents and bilateral agreements concluded between Kuwait and other foreign governments.

According to a list of missing property released by Kuwait, Iraq also took possession of more than 5,000 pieces of military equipment belonging to Kuwait.

These weapons include Mirage F-1 fighter planes; BMP armored personnel carriers; M113 armored personnel carriers; HAWK missile batteries; SA-7 and SA-8 missiles; tank carriers; TOW anti-tank missiles, FROG-7 missile launching pads; and M84 battle tanks.

The United States, France, and the former Soviet Union supplied most of the weapons to Kuwait. The Iraqis began returning some of the military equipment in late 1992.

But Kuwait insists that most of the weapons had been rendered militarily useless because helicopters had been returned without their navigation equipment and tanks without firing controls.