PRESS RELEASE

New York, July 17th, 2000

Humanitarian Organizations called upon to investigate

the Fate of the Iraqi Missing Persons in Kuwait

The Popular Committee for Iraqi Missing Persons in Kuwait has called upon humanitarian and other international and popular organizations throughout the world to put pressure on the rulers of Kuwait to provide information on the fate of Iraqi missing persons whose families have been awaiting them for so many long years.

At a press conference held last week, Mr. Hisham Hassan Tawfiq, Chairman of the Committee, announced the names of the Iraqi missing persons in Kuwait, totaling 1,134 persons in addition to a further 12 whose names had only reached him in the morning of the preceding day via petitions submitted by their families.

Mr. Tawfiq said that official, human rights and other humanitarian organizations had already addressed to rulers of Kuwait several appeals calling upon them to disclose the names and fate of the Iraqi missing persons in Kuwait and to provide information about the conditions of their captivity in order to reassure their families and relatives, having regard to humanitarian considerations and norms. Those efforts and calls, however, had ended in failure as a result of the intransigence of the rulers of Kuwait who had refused to respond to and comment on any call or appeal or to undertake any investigations to provide Iraq and the humanitarian organizations with the names of those missing persons. On the other hand, neither the names of those missing persons nor any other information about them had been filed with the international Committee of the Red Cross or other international and humanitarian organizations by the Kuwaiti rulers, a matter which was contrary to all humanitarian customs and laws and international conventions, including the relevant Geneva Convention, one of whose provisions enjoined facilitating the settlement of the affairs of prisoners of war at the earliest possible date after the end of a war or an armed conflict.

Mr. Tawfiq concluded his remarks by saying that his Committee would work in coordination and cooperation with its member Iraqi organizations, unions and associations and would contact Arab, regional and international organizations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, with a view to finding solutions to this issue and putting and end to the suffering of those missing persons and their families.

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