DATE=1/9/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=IRAQ/KUWAIT/SAUDI (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-257907
BYLINE=RICHARD ENGEL
DATELINE=CAIRO
CONTENT=

VOICED AT:


INTRO: Iraq's Foreign Minister has said that his 
government may soon begin to cooperate with Kuwait and 
Saudi Arabia to resolve long-standing disputes over 
people still missing since the Gulf War. Richard Engel 
reports from our Middle East bureau that governments 
in the Gulf region claim that about two thousand 
people are still missing nearly a decade after the war 
ended.

TEXT: Iraqi Foreign Minister Sayid al-Sahaf told a 
newspaper in the United Arab Emirates that Iraq may 
soon repatriate the remains of a Saudi pilot shot down 
during the Gulf War. 

Mr. al-Sahaf says the wreckage of the Saudi plane had 
been located recently and an Iraqi officer who buried 
the pilot in a minefield in Iraq had offered to help 
recover the body. 

The government in Baghdad has previously denied having 
any knowledge of the location of the pilot's remains.

Mr. al-Sahaf also said Iraq could soon work with 
Kuwait to find people still missing since the Gulf 
War, but denied allegations that Iraq is holding 
Kuwaiti prisoners.

Kuwait claims that Iraq holds some six hundred of its 
nationals in prison.

Mr. al-Sahaf in turn says Kuwait refuses to provide 
information about more than one thousand Iraqis that 
Baghdad claims disappeared after it invaded Kuwait in 
1990.

The Iraqi minister said Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq 
should cooperate under the auspices of the 
International Committee of the Red Cross to 
investigate the fate of all those still missing since 
the Gulf War.

Mr. al-Sahaf insisted that the United States, Britain 
and France should not be involved in any discussions 
since Iraq had already resolved any problems about 
missing people from those countries. (SIGNED)

NEB/RHE/DW/PLM

 



09-Jan-2000 07:22 AM EDT (09-Jan-2000 1222 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
.