The New York Times

Tuesday, November 23, 1999

U.N. Draft to Seek Reports About Missing Kuwaitis

By Reuters

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A resolution being discussed by permanent Security Council members would require periodic U.N. reports on efforts to find more than 600 people still missing after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, diplomats said on Tuesday.

The resolution, under discussion for months by the United States, Russia, Britain, China and France, focuses mainly on how best to resume inspections of Iraqi weapons programs and at what stage sanctions in force against Baghdad might be eased.

But the draft also includes provisions concerning Kuwaiti and other prisoners dating from the Iraqi occupation, as well as unreturned property claimed by Kuwait.

Kuwait has long said more than 600 people -- mostly Kuwaitis but also some residents of other nationalities -- remain unaccounted for. Iraq denies it is holding any prisoners of war or detainees.

Diplomats said the draft under discussion would recall ''with concern that the repatriation and return of all Kuwaitis and third country nationals or their remains, present in Iraq on or after August 2, 1990 ... have not yet been fully carried out by Iraq.''

It would also recall that Iraq ``has still not complied fully'' with the demand contained in two 1991 council resolutions that it return in the shortest possible time all Kuwaiti property it had seized.

The proposed resolution would request U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan ``to report to the council every four months on compliance by Iraq with its obligations regarding the repatriation or return of all Kuwaitis and third country nationals or their remains, (and) to report every six months on the return of all Kuwaiti property, including archives, seized by Iraq.''

The draft would reiterate Iraq's obligation to extend all necessary cooperation to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in relation to the repatriation of Kuwaiti and other missing persons.

Iraq would also be called on to resume cooperation with the ''Tripartite Commission and Technical-Sub-Committee,'' established to facilitate work on the issue.

Under ICRC auspices, the commission groups an Iraqi delegation and a delegation comprising Gulf War allies Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United States, Britain and France, but Iraq has boycotted the commission for most of the year.