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Iraq says U.S. politicising issue of missing

BAGHDAD: Iraq accused the United States and Kuwait on Saturday of using the issue of Kuwaitis missing since the 1990-1991 Gulf War as a political ploy to prolong sanctions.

"The issue of missing Kuwaitis is...a political tool America and Kuwait employ to justify prolonging the sanctions," the government newspaper al-Jumhouriya said.

Gulf War ceasefire resolution 687 linking the ban on Iraqi oil exports to full adherence to the 1991 Gulf War ceasefire terms on disarmament had "nothing to do with the missing (Kuwaitis)", it said.

President Bill clinton said in a letter to Congress on Tuesday that the United States would not lift the oil sanctions until Baghdad accounted for the missing Kuwaitis, returned Kuwaiti property and improved its human rights record.

"Clinton lies when he claims that Iraq refuses to return missing Kuwaitis and Kuwaiti property," Jumhouriya said.

Kuwait, backed by its ally the United States, wants Iraq to account for 600 missing Kuwaitis, among other demands, before the oil embargo can be lifted.

Jumhouriya said Iraq was willing to return Kuwaiti property but the Kuwaiti authorities "have frequently rejected receiving it or conducting talks on how to hand it over."

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Friday that Kuwaiti and Iraqi officials ended a two-day meeting in Geneva on clearing up the fate of 600 people who went missing during Iraq's seven-month occupation of the emirate.

But the ICRC shed no light on whether any of the 600 cases had been resolved.

The Iraqi News Agency said in June that Iraq had dealt with 168 individual files given to it by the ICRC.

Iraq has repeatedly denied that it had any Kuwaiti detainees on its territory, but says it would do its best to investigate their fate. On Saturday, Iraq said it would do everything possible to have the sanctions eased or lifted.

Diplomats estimate the number of Britons, Saudis, Americans and French nationals missing in the conflict at about two dozen.

Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev, ending a visit to Kuwait on Thursday, said he would ask Baghdad to step up the search for missing Kuwaitis. Iraq is a long-time ally of Moscow.-Reuter