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Re: ICRC Asked to Coordinate in Finding Remains

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: May 18, 2003

"ICRC asked to coordinate in finding remains of war dead

Sunday, May 18, 2003 - ©2003 IranMania.com

Khorramshahr,  May 18 - Iran asked on Saturday the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to coordinate with it in locating and bringing home the remains of its soldiers listed as missing in action or martyred in Iraq during the 1980-88 Iraqi-imposed war, IRNA reported.

"Iran asked the ICRC to have close cooperation with Iran in locating the remains of its soldiers missing in action although no formal civil administration has been established in Iraq and US and British forces have failed to prevent cemeteries from being vandalized or documents detailing Saddam Hussein's crimes from being destroyed," the head of the search committee for MIAs, Brigadier General Mir-Feysal Baqerzadeh told an IRNA correspondent here.

Iran on Sunday was to receive the remains of 45 of its soldiers martyred during the country's 1980-1988 war with Iraq, the first of such transactions after exchanges were halted in March this year.

The Iranian official underscored the need to set up a tripartite committee composed of representatives from Iran, Kuwait and the ICRC to search more diligently for remains of thousands of Iranian, Kuwaiti and Iraqi soldiers still listed as missing.

"Iran has called for the establishment of a search committee in collaboration with Iran, Kuwait and the ICRC to reduce the psychological and social impact of thousands of Iranian, Iraqi and Kuwaiti remaining unaccounted for," Baqerzadeh said.

Baqerzadeh offered the services of Iran's search committee for MIAs, banking on its experiences and successes, to help in this humanitarian aspect of the war.

"Iran is ready to help Kuwait, which has hundreds of its citizens still unaccounted for in the aftermath of the military invasion by the Iraqi regime, find these missing persons," he added.

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