News-Info-Alerts

Re: Two Kuwaiti POWs Martyred

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: August 07, 2003

"KUWAIT NEWS
Editor-in-Chief: Ahmed Jarallah

All POWs likely lost; 2 named martyrs as Cabinet remembers

KUWAIT : Kuwait Sunday announced the martyrdom of two more POWs, expressed relief at the ouster of Saddam Hussein's regime, and said it still remembers with great sadness the fate of Kuwaiti POWs and the discovery of mass graves in various parts of Iraq.

"Kuwait remembers, with agonising grief, the return of the remains of some POWs to Kuwaiti soil, after having been brutalized and executed by the monstrous Iraqi regime which never failed to deny the existence of these POWs," the Council of Ministers said in a statement after holding its ordinary weekly session under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah Sunday.

Kuwaiti POWs, Safah Abjad Aloosh Al-Mutairi and Laffi Faihan Mohammed Laila Al-Mutairi, whose remains were found by a search team in a mass grave south of the southern Iraqi city of Samawa, were pronounced as martyrs after their DNA was checked and matched, said the team in charge of searching for POWs and missing in Iraq.

Today's announcement brings the total number of martyred POWs to 13 since the discovery of the mass burial ground in Iraq. Laffi is the son of a martyred POW whose remains were found earlier by the search team. The team's official spokesman, Fayez Al-Enezi said, in a statement Sunday, Safah Al-Mutairi was born on Sept 22, 1940. He was a retired government employee at the time of his capture by the Iraqi forces on Oct 25,1990. Laffi Al-Mutairi, born on Feb 11, 1967, was taken by Iraqis on Sept 15,1990. "The remains were tested positive by the Interior Ministry's Department of Criminal Evidences," said Al-Enezi.
On July 29, Kuwaiti POW, Jassem Al-Sammak and a Lebanese woman, Daad Al-Hariri were pronounced as martyrs after their DNA was matched. On June 8, the team pronounced Saad Meshaal Al-Enezi as the first martyred POW and on June 14, another Kuwaiti POW was pronounced martyr, identified as Ahmad Abdullah AbdulRasoul Al-Qallaf. On July 8, the team announced four POWS as martyrs including Nasser Hussein Omran Al-Enezi, Abdel Latif Nasser Hussein Al-Wuhaib, Mahmoud Sayed Reda Sayed Hassan and An'am Sayed Ahmad Sayed Islamil Al-Idan, a woman. Earlier, two more POWs were pronounced as martyrs and identified as Faihan Al-Mutairi and Nasser Al-Khaledi.

Deputy Premier and State Minister for Cabinet and Parliament Affairs Mohammed Dhaifallah Sharar said, after the Cabinet session, the Cabinet issued a statement on the 13th anniversary of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. It said that "Kuwait, while recalling at this time the brutal Iraqi invasion of Aug 2, 1990 which destroyed our country and terrorized its inhabitants, gives the Almighty and all countries that helped it in its darkest hours much thanks for liberating it. We pray on this occasion for the souls of our people who perished as a result of the brutal invasion.

Since its liberation, Kuwait has followed a policy whereby the malicious and belligerent objectives of the former Iraqi regime toward its neighbors were systematically exposed.

Moreover, when the time came to liberate Iraq from the tyranny of the former regime, Kuwait gave all the help it could to make the task of coalition forces in Iraq easily achievable," said the statement. "Now that the former regime is gone, Kuwait offers its heartfelt congratulations to the Iraqi people for having been liberated from a regime which brutalized them and dissipated the wealth of their nation," said the Cabinet statement. It said Kuwait welcomes the establishment of Iraq's Transitional Governing Council and wishes it the best in formulating a permanent constitution and in reconstructing the country.
"Kuwait looks forward to having good neighborly ties with a free and democratic Iraq whereby all binding agreements and internationally endorsed pacts are fully adhered to and respected in a way which will be conducive to peace and security in the entire region," said the statement. Meanwhile, the UN Secretary General's special coordinator for the Kuwait POWs and Property Affairs, Yuli Vorontsov said late Saturday there was no information on alive POWs in Iraq, but hoped relevant information would be obtained soon. He added news was received on more mass graves found in Iraq, and may contain bodies of some Kuwaiti POWs.

The Kuwaiti authorities are continuing the search for more POWs among remains brought from mass graves which include thousands of corpses of people killed by the toppled Iraqi regime. Vorontsov said the search process was difficult, but it was better to unveil the fate of POWs. He made the statement following a meeting with the National Committee for Missing and POWs Affairs (NCMPA) acting Chairman Dr Ibrahim Al-Shaheen and other members.

In response to the possibility of closing Kuwaiti POWs file, Vorontsov said the UN Security Council was the only party in charge of taking such a decision. He added he will visit Iraq whenever time is suitable, and the visit will be done in coordination with the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq. Vorontsov arrived in Kuwait Friday to complete part of a report he would refer to the UN Security Council on Aug 17. Al-Shaheen said, meanwhile new mass graves found in Iraq would be searched for bodies of Kuwaiti POWs. He added 120 remains are being tested to determine if they were of Kuwaiti POWs or not.
"These are not good news, but we still hope to find some alive among more than 600 POWs," said Al-Shaheen. He added the locations of such mass graves would not be announced to avoid any bid to unearth bodies and trade in the POWs issue. He said a military force affiliated to the CPA would protect any mass grave found until the Kuwaiti search team takes samples of the bodies. The search team, he added, was ready to travel to Iraq and was finalizing relevant procedures with local authorities in Iraq.

The former Iraqi regime had captured 605 Kuwaiti and non-Kuwaiti POWs during its 1990-1991 occupation of Kuwait. HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah sent cables of condolences to the families of the two Kuwaiti martyrs. Sheikh Saad expressed his sincere condolences to the families of the two martyrs praising their sacrifice for their beloved country.

Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah also sent a cable of condolences to the families of the two Kuwaiti martyrs, congratulating the two families for the honor their sons have gained by sacrificing their lives in defense of their beloved country.

Kuwait News
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