Security Council calls on Iraq to return missing Kuwaiti archives

The United Nations Security Council praised, on Tuesday, the ongoing coordination between Iraq and Kuwait, and welcomed the commitment by the Iraqi government to return all remaining Kuwaiti property.

The Security Council said in a press statement yesterday: “The members of the Security Council welcomed the ongoing cooperation between Iraq and Kuwait with regard to the search for missing Kuwaitis and third-country nationals. The members also welcomed Kuwait’s completion of the process of identifying the human remains that were exhumed from Samawah in Iraq and transferred to Kuwait in 2019 and 2020. They pointed out that 59 groups of remains were identified as being Kuwaitis and third-country nationals; they also indicated that Kuwait transferred to Iraq the six groups of remains that did not match the database of missing persons in Iraq.”

The members of the Security Council renewed their “deep sympathy with the families of the missing persons, and expressed their condolences for the lives lost”. They praised “the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Tripartite Mechanism and the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) for their role in facilitating the implementation of resolution 2107 of the year (2013) to resolve outstanding issues relating to the missing Kuwaitis and third-country nationals”. They welcomed “the continued commitment by the Government of Iraq to return all remaining Kuwaiti property, and encouraged the Government of Iraq to continue its search for lost property, particularly revitalising the search for the missing Kuwaiti national archives”.

The members of the Security Council expressed their “appreciation to the Government of Iraq for its exerted efforts to fulfil all its remaining obligations in accordance with relevant Security Council resolutions.”

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The Head of the Committee on Prisoners and Missing Persons Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Rabie Al-Adsani, announced the identification of ten prisoners and missing persons during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

He explained that this was done through the genetic examining of the DNA, which was carried out by the General Department of Criminal Evidence at the Ministry of Interior in Kuwait on the remains that were brought from Iraq.

In a statement by the Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Al-Adsani said that these prisoners were arrested during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, and their remains were brought from Iraq among other remains that were previously identified in November 2020, and January and March 2021.

He added that this came after intensive efforts, through which information was obtained regarding two burial sites in Iraq. This information was submitted to a technical committee that examined the sites, with the participation of an Iraqi team and under the supervision of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

He asserted that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed the families of these prisoners as soon as the genetic examination process was completed and the results were revealed, and the appropriate measures were taken in this regard.

Last November, Al-Adsani said that “Kuwait is always keen to devote all capabilities and energies to find and identify all the prisoners and missing persons who were proven to have been executed during the Iraqi invasion,” adding that Kuwait continues to do so until the last of the remains are brought.

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