Special missions assess war damage.

Two high-level missions were dispatched to Kuwait and Iraq in March to investigate the consequences of the war.

A UN inter-agency mission, led by Under-Secreatary-General Martin Ahtisaari, visited Iraq from 10 to 17 March and Kuwait from 23 to 27 March. Its purpose: to assess humanitarian needs in the "immediate post-crisis environment".

A second special mission, led by former Under-Secretary-General Abdulrahim A. Farah, visited Kuwait from 18 March through 4 April, to gain information on losses of life, Iraqi practices against civilians and damage to Kuwait's infrastructure.

The Ahtisaari mission reported (S/22409) that Kuwait had been "scarred by the ravages of illegal occupation and, subsidiarily, of war". A deliberate attempt had been made to extinguish Kuwaiti national identity; there had been "coordinated vandalism" and massive looting, it stated.

At least two thirds of Kuwaiti's estimated 2.3 million population were now scattered throughout the world. There was prolific evidence of arson and malicious destruction of homes, businesses, markets, museums and libraries, the report said.

Kuwait's oil industry would take longest to restore, it went on. Oil wells on fire well spewing flames, which created thick clouds of oily, dark smoke that brought "a chilly twilight" at noon, as well as "still-unchartered perils to health".

'Near apocalyptic'

As for Iraq, the Ahtisaari mission reported (S/22366) that the effect of the conflict on Iraq's economic infrastructure had been "near-apocalyptic". Until January 1991, it had been "a rather highly urbanized and mechanized society"; now most means of modern life support had been destroyed or "rendered tenuous".

The country had been relegated to "a pre-industrial age". Severe fuel shortages curtailed transportation, irrigation and the use of power generators to pump water and sewage. Ssome 90 per cent of the industrial work force had been "reduced to inactivity". Food supplies were becoming scarce. Communications systems had been destroyed.

The mission recommended a "major mobilization and movement of resources" to deal with aspects of the crisis in agriculture and food, water, sanitation and health. Many of its recommendations confirmed those of a joint World Health Organization/UN Children's Fund team which visited Iraq from 16 to 21 February, delivering a 54-ton shipment of emergency medical supplies for children and mothers.

'Never centres' struck

After his mission, Mr. Farah reported on 4 April that widespread military vandalism in occupied Kuwait had struck at the "nerve-centres" of the nation. His team had been informed that the Kuwaiti Centre for the Registration of Missing Persons had compiled a list of more than 11,000 missing persons. A UN expert was to be appointed to advise on ways to coordinate and present information on the human rights element of the Farah mission mandate.