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Kuwait Refuses Iraq Suggestion on Arab League POW Inquiry
KUWAIT CITY, Aug 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Kuwait has refused an Iraqi suggestion to form an Arab League committee to investigate a POW issue between the two countries following the 1991 Gulf War in the region, news agencies reported Tuesday.
On Saturday, Iraq proposed to the Arab League the creation of a follow-up committee on the issue of POWs and Iraqis and Kuwaitis still missing since war, the official Iraqi news agency INA reported.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri forwarded the suggestion in a message to Arab League Chief Amr Musa, INA reported.
"Iraq will welcome any initiative by the League secretary general ... for the creation of an Arab follow-up committee on the issue of Iraqis and Kuwaitis missing," Sabri said.
Kuwait's foreign minister, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad, said that he has not received any official notification from the Arab League on the matter. The Iraqi proposal, he said, is merely an attempt to evade the issue at hand and to break through international legitimacy, which Kuwait insists on to solve the matter through, reported the Kuwaiti daily
Al Qabas.
Meanwhile, Sheikh Salem al-Sabah, the head of the national committee for the missing and POW affairs, said Kuwait's position is to closely follow Security Council resolutions on that matter, especially resolution No. 1284. The resolution invites Iraq to attend a tripartite committee along with the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) in order to release Kuwaiti POWs, reported the Kuwait News Agency, KUNA.
The tripartite committee includes Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United States, France, Britain, the ICRC and Iraq.
But Baghdad has boycotted ICRC-brokered committee meetings due to the United States and British air war on Iraq that began in December 1998. Since then, Iraq has insisted on the ousting of British, French and U.S. representatives from meetings.
In his letter, Sabri reiterated Iraq's position that the U.S. and British representatives be removed from the tripartite committee, INA reported.
However, he proposed that if the countries remain on the committee, then Russia, China and India should also join since their position is "neutral".
On Tuesday, in a letter published by INA, Sabri called on U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to "pass the issue of the missing Kuwaitis to the ICRC, a neutral body empowered to work together with the different parties concerned."
"The insistence of the United States and Britain to leave this business in the hands of the U.N. Security Council is aimed at allowing them to use it as a tool of political pressure on Iraq.
"The use of U.N. bodies to harm Iraq is regrettable. It violates the U.N. charter and encroaches upon the prerogatives of the secretary general," said Sabri, who, on Monday, added that Baghdad was ready for direct talks with Kuwait concerning those missing.
International sanctions imposed on Iraq since 1990 have badly hurt the economy and living standards. In addition, Iraq accuses the United States and Britain of attacking civilian targets as they enforce "no fly zones" over the north and south of the country.
The lack of a solution to the missing persons issue is one of the issues that have helped thwart Baghdad's campaign to have the sanctions lifted.
Kuwait accuses Iraq of kidnapping and holding some 600 of its citizens who disappeared during Iraq's occupation of the oil-rich emirate from August 1990 to February 1991, according to KUNA.
In addition, the missing includes nationals of Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, India, Iran, Egypt, Syria, Bahrain and Oman.
But Baghdad rejects the accusation and conversely says that 1,142 Iraqis are being secretly held against their will by Kuwaiti authorities.
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