News-Info-Alerts

Re: 149 Kuwaiti POWs Determined Dead

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: June 10, 2003

"Editor-in-Chief: Ahmed Jarallah

DOCUMENTS 'DETAIL DEATH' OF KUWAITI MARTYRS

Hope at end for families of 149 - Nations braces

KUWAIT CITY, June 9: The National Committee for Missing and POWs Affairs (NCMPA) Monday telephoned 149 Kuwaiti families of POWs to inform them of the death of their children who were captured by Iraqi forces during the 1990-1991 occupation of Kuwait.

Sources said NCMPA reached this decision after going over Iraqi documents which indicate these POWs have been martyred. A number of POWs families gathered in front of the Civil Defence Department in South Surra late Monday to express their dismay over NCMPA's incompetence in dealing with the POWs issue and obstructing the search efforts of the team.

Deputy chairman of a society representing the families of POWs and member of a team in charge of searching POWs in Iraq, Medweh Al-Mutairi strongly criticised the manner NCMPA has been dealing with the issue. He added NCMPA should not have relied on a mere document bearing the names of some Kuwaiti POWs who have been executed by the Iraqi regime in Iraq. "Informing the families of POWs of the martyrdom of their children in this manner without relying on DNA results was not right because it instigated anger among the families and aggravated their suffering," Al-Mutairi told the Arab Times Monday.

Al-Mutairi called on NCMPA to apologise to POW families because they informed them of the death of their children without relying on material proof.

Al-Mutairi revealed the NCMPA has signed a protocol with the Tripartite Committee, which includes representatives from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the Red Cross and allied forces. He added the protocol prohibits any side from exhuming any grave without prior approval of NCMPA.

Al-Mutairi said this protocol obstructs the search for POWs and stops the team from continuing its duties at a fast pace, which lead to the finding of the remains of martyr Saad Al-Enezi. Al-Mutairi said Dr Ibrahim Al-Aqeedi, who represents the Iraqi side on the Tripartite Committee, possesses information on the fate of Kuwaiti POWs but he refuses to give out this information until a new Iraqi government is formed, "which is the reason Al-Aqeedi was appointed as a member of the Tripartite Committee."

Agencies add: It's taken the positive ID of just one set of human remains dug up from a mass Iraqi grave to confirm the worst fears held by hundreds of long-suffering Kuwaitis. "It's over. We are now almost sure that there are no living among the prisoners," Abdul Hameed Al-Attar, an official with the government's Committee for Missing and Prisoners of War Affairs, said on Monday.

On Sunday, Kuwait announced that the remains of one of hundreds of its citizens missing since Iraq's seven-month occupation had been discovered at a mass grave near the southern Iraqi city of Samawah. DNA testing revealed the remains belonged to Saad Meshaal Aswad Al-Enezi, a Kuwaiti taken prisoner by Iraqi forces in November 1990. Kuwaiti officials say evidence indicates he was shot dead between 1991 and 1992.

A POW task force and coalition troops last month found the Samawah grave site, saying it may hold the remains of Kuwaitis missing for more than a decade. Kuwaiti forensic teams are in Iraq inspecting mass graves and tracking down information on other POWs. Kuwaiti officials said tens of other remains are being tested to determine who they belong to.

Kuwaitis demanded their government and coalition forces do more to account for their loved ones, and the state posted a $1 million reward for credible information leading to the discovery of any missing people. US and British forces, who used Kuwait as a launch pad for the invasion of Iraq, have searched fruitlessly through Iraqi prisons for the missing. Now with the discovery of Iraq's mass graves, initial hopes of finding relatives alive began fading.

The news on the recovery of Al-Enezi's remains has seemingly dashed remaining hopes. Many relatives here in Kuwait said they were too disturbed to comment Monday. Interior Minister Sheikh Mohammed Khaled said Sunday the Al-Enezi discovery does not mean hope of finding live prisoners was gone. But Al-Attar said his own son Jamal, who is among the missing, was almost certainly dead.

"I've had this feeling for a long time now, although one never really gives up hope," he said. Al-Attar wants his government to quickly announce further DNA testing results, but feared delays as officials "didn't want to shock the relatives and preferred to make the announcements gradually."

Kuwait News
Tel: + 4813566/4849144, Fax:+ 4818267 - Email: info@arabtimesonline.com"