Kuwait Denounces Iraqi President's Speech for Not Mentioning POWs

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, December 09, 2002

Kuwait Denounces Iraqi President's Speech for Not Mentioning POWs

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A senior Kuwaiti official who is in charge of the affairs of prisoners of war (POWs) denounced Sunday Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's "apology" speech to Kuwait for not containing "any remarks concerning the Kuwaiti POWs and detainees held in Iraqi prisons for 12 years."

Deputy Chairman of Kuwait's National Committee for POWs and Missing Affairs Ibrahim Majed Al-Shaheen said in a statement that "Saddam Hussein's speech is an official disregard to the most humanitarian issue in our modern history."

"We thought the speech would announce the POWs release," Shaheensaid, adding that "instead, we were surprised by total disregard ofthis important issue, which is causing great suffering for the Kuwaiti people."

"An apology to Kuwait must include closing the POWs file insteadof vague sentences," he stressed.

On Saturday night, Saddam in his first address to the Kuwaiti people apologized for the 1990-1991 occupation and called for jointstruggle against foreign armies.

In an apparent reference to the US military presence in Kuwait, the statement read by Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al Sahaf urged the Kuwaiti people to join Iraq in resisting the occupation of foreign forces.

Later Saturday, Kuwaiti Information Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Ahmad al-Sabah refuted Saddam's letter to the Kuwaiti people, saying the message was an attempt to create a rift between the Kuwaiti people and the leadership.

The minister renewed the demand that the Iraqi leader show a committment to the implementation of the relevant United Nations resolutions, especially those urging the release of the Kuwait POWs, return of stolen properties and confirmation of the sovereignty and independence of the state of Kuwait.

Relations between Kuwait and Baghdad have been severed since Iraq invaded the oil-rich Gulf neighbour in 1990.

Kuwait maintains that Iraq is still holding more than 600 Kuwaitis and other countries' nationals who disappeared during the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait in 1990.

Iraqi officials have admitted holding prisoners before losing track of them during a Shi'ite uprising in southern Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War, which led to the eviction of Iraqi troops out of Kuwait.

Earlier this month, the UN Security Council unanimously approvedResolution 1441, which gave Iraq one last chance to disarm or face "serious consequences."

The resolution also deals with the issue of Kuwaiti POWs and detainees in Iraq.

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