ARABS-UN - Aug. 17 - Iraq Asked To Cooperate Over Missing Kuwaitis.

Security Council members call on Baghdad to cooperate with UN official who has been trying to trace more than 600 Kuwaitis and others missing since Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. This follows a closed-door briefing by retired Russian diplomat Yuli Vorontsov, a former ambassador to the UN and to Washington, who was appointed earlier 2000 as the UN coordinator for the missing persons and for Kuwaiti property seized by Iraq. A statement read to reporters by council president Hasmy Agam of Malaysia says members expressed their unanimous support for Vorontsov's efforts and their "deep concern at the plight of the missing Kuwaiti and 3rd country nationals and their families", adding that they hoped the issue would be dealt with as a strictly humanitarian one by all sides concerned. They also stressed the importance of dialogue among all parties, including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and a tripartite commission on the missing persons that Iraq has boycotted since early 1999.

The statement says council members "urged Iraq to fully cooperate with Ambassador Vorontsov and resume cooperation with all other agencies and bodies dealing with this issue". (The tripartite commission, which works under the chairmanship of the ICRC, is supposed to group an Iraqi delegation and one comprising Gulf War allies Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the US, Britain and France. Vorontsov has so far been unable to open a dialogue with the Iraqi authorities concerning the missing persons. Iraq denies it is holding any of them.) Vorontsov said in a recent report that Iraq had returned a substantial quantity of property over the past 9 years, with the bulk of the handovers occurring between 1991 and 1994. He said despite this, there remained many items which Iraq was obliged to return to Kuwait. They ranged from extensive Kuwaiti state archives and museum pieces to 8 Mirage fighter planes and other weapons and military equipment.