ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iraqi officials met with International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) representatives in Baghdad to discuss Kuwaiti soldiers missing in the country since the Gulf War in 1990-1991 on Friday and set the stage for a trilateral meeting in Jordan set on Wednesday.
“The meeting dealt with the latest developments regarding the case of missing Kuwaitis,” the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
The sit-down follows the discovery of human remains in Iraq’s Muthana province, Samawa district, which may include Kuwaiti prisoners of war (POWs) from the conflict, according to a statement from the International Committee of the Red Cross.
It was not apparent if Kuwaiti officials were present at the meeting and its ministry of foreign affairs did not immediately release a statement on the matter.
Samawa, located on the Euphrates River, is approximately 240 kilometers southeast of Baghdad about halfway to Basra and Kuwait.
Iraq, then ruled by former Baath regime leader Saddam Hussein, invaded Kuwait in 1990. An international coalition led by the United States ousted Iraqi forces from the country.
Preliminary analysis indicated the bodies may be those of Kuwaiti soldiers, according to the ICRC that is relying on genetic analysis conducted in the Iraqi capital.
"A technical team from Kuwait visited the Medico-Legal Directorate in Baghdad to view and discuss with the Iraqi side these positive preliminary results, and the two sides agreed to transfer a number of samples of those remains to Kuwait," the ICRC statement said.
Iraq and Kuwait have now agreed to conduct a full test with the goal of ultimately returning the soldiers’ bodies to their families.
“The Iraqi and Kuwaiti sides will coordinate the transfer of all the remains to the Kuwaiti side to carry out a full genetic examination and prepare for the matching process,” continued the statement. “The objective is to identify all the remains, establish their identities and eventually announce them to the relatives concerned.”
Iraq has paid billions of dollars to Kuwait to compensate for the invasion and occupation. The funds come from a percentage of Iraq’s oil sales.
Kuwait and Iraq enjoy better relations presently than they did during the Saddam Hussein era. Kuwait’s ruling Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah visited Iraq on July 24 to discuss rising tensions pertaining to Iran with Iraqi officials.
The Iraqi foreign minister, Mohamed Ali al-Hakim, also had a call with his Kuwaiti counterpart on Saturday, though it is not clear if they discussed the missing Kuwaitis.
Members of the UN Security Council met with Iraqi President Barham Salih, Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi, FM Mohammed Ali al-Hakim, Parliament Speaker Mohammed Al-Halbousi, Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani, and others to discuss the issue on June 19.
"The members of the Security Council welcomed the 19 June joint statement by the Tripartite Mechanism on the recent recovery of remains in Al-Muthana Governorate, Iraq, believed to be of Kuwaiti citizens, including civilians and prisoners of war, as a result of joint efforts between the Governments of Iraq and Kuwait and the ICRC," read a UNAMI statement at the time.
The Tripartite Committee, which includes Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), will further discuss the matter in Jordan on July 31.
EDITORS' NOTE: A video referring to a mass grave of captive Kuwaiti soldiers killed in 1990 was posted by the Muthana Governorate on July 27, 2019 and embedded in this article on the same date. The video was removed on July 29, 2019 at the request of ICRC, who stated to Rudaw English that the location the governor of Muthana refers to in the video is “a different site, not covered by the above mentioned article."
