By KUNA,
United Nations : UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said late Monday that there are “encouraging” indications regarding the return of the remains of the Kuwaiti detainees as well as of the Kuwaiti archives, including hundreds of radio and television tape recordings, and expressed hope that further progress will be achieved in the coming months.
“Indications of the possibility of further progress in the repatriation of the remains of those on the list of missing persons are encouraging. It is my hope that further positive developments will take place in the weeks and months ahead,” Ban told the Security Council in a report that the council members will examine later this week.
The report was prepared by the newly appointed High-level Coordinator for both issues Ambassador Gennady Tarasov who “has my full confidence,” Ban said, “in carrying out his mission aimed at facilitating the resolution of issues that have been pending since the end of the Gulf war” Annexed to the report was a list of 235 names out of 605 of Kuwaiti POWs and third-country nationals – citizens of Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, Oman, and Saudi Arabia – whose remains had been identified by the Kuwaiti authorities and whose files are considered formally closed.
Tarasov’s success in the implementation of his mandate, Ban noted, “requires the earnest cooperation and practical involvement of all concerned. I fully share Ambassador Tarasov’s call for the renewed joint efforts of all parties with a view to achieving concrete results as soon as possible.” Tarasov succeeded late Yuli Vorontsov who died last December before fulfilling his wish to close both files.
Ban stressed that Iraq’s contribution to the resolution of the two issues is “essential to putting an end to the long-standing human tragedy concerning the fate of the missing persons as well as finding the archives.” “I am pleased that Iraq has shown sensitivity and understanding as well as its sincere intention to assist in resolving the outstanding cases … Understanding and a display of good will are of critical importance,” Ban said, adding that Tarasov was looking forward to facilitating these efforts in “good faith” and to visiting Iraq in the “near future” as soon as the security situation permits.
The report said the Iraqi envoy to the UN Hamad Al-Bayati had told Tarasov in New York that his Government “fully understands the importance for the families of the missing Kuwaiti and third-country nationals to receive clarification of the fate of their loved ones and see their remains properly buried.” The report further quoted Al-Bayati as saying “Iraq is keen to find a resolution to the issues falling under the mandate outlined in paragraph 14 of Security Council resolution 1284 of 1999 bilaterally with the Government of Kuwait.” The report also said that the members of the Kuwaiti Committee for Missing Persons expressed to Tarasov during his visit to Kuwait in late May a “guarded hope that some positive developments may occur in the near future after a prolonged lull in the search and exhumation operations in Iraq due to the dire security situation there.” According to the Committee, the report said, Iraq had informed Kuwait that local residents in the Ramadi area had agreed to help locate grave sites where more than a dozen Kuwaiti POWs were allegedly buried and that legal procedures required by Iraqi law for exhumation had been completed.
The Iraqi authorities would attempt to exhume the remains and bring them to Kuwait, the report said, and “Should this prove unfeasible, Kuwaiti teams may later be dispatched to Iraq.” The report also stated that there are “expectations of progress” in locating the burial sites of Kuwaiti POWs who had been executed by Iraqi troops in Kuwait.
It noted that Iraq had identified and debriefed witnesses who gave their consent to travel to Kuwait and pinpoint the locations of the burial sites after receiving assurances from Kuwaiti officials that they would not be prosecuted.
Tarasov was also told that Kuwait had received information that several mass graves at Salman Pak, Kerbala, Nasseriya, and Samawa, though previously visited and remains were exhumed there and delivered to Kuwait in 2004, “might still contain” remains of Kuwaiti and third-country nationals, but the security situation in these areas currently prevents the carrying out of search and assessment operations.
He said Kuwait is hopeful that additional information on the whereabouts of sites where Kuwaiti POWs may be buried could be received from a witness in Iraq who testified at the Iraqi High Tribunal about the execution of Kuwaiti nationals.
On the issue of the return of the Kuwaiti property, the report also quoted Al-Bayati as telling Tarasov that “Iraq has no interest and intention of keeping the Kuwaiti archives” which he believed were “apparently destroyed by fire during the last days of the previous regime. Nevertheless, should documents and other property belonging to Kuwait be found, they would be immediately returned.” Ban said in the report that Kuwaiti Ambassador to the UN Abdullah Al-Murad informed Tarasov in a letter earlier this month that the Kuwaiti authorities had received a memo from the Embassy of Iraq in Kuwait, concerning “the intention of Iraq to return hundreds of radio and television tape recordings which apparently belong to the Kuwaiti archives” stolen by the previous Iraqi regime during the 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
“While it will be up to the Kuwaiti authorities to ascertain whether the mentioned items are part of what Kuwait considers its state archives, this development provides hope that other essential Kuwaiti items and documents may be found,” Ban said.
Ban called once again on governments and individuals “who may know what happened to these documents, or possess information on their whereabouts, to clarify the fate of the archives.” Ban paid tribute in the report to the late Ambassador Yuli Vorontsov, who made an “outstanding contribution to the United Nations … He spared no effort in carrying out (his) mandate. He did this with dedication, resolve, and respect for both the Kuwaiti and Iraqi people. He will be remembered with admiration by all who knew him, Ban remarked.