Kuwait commends UN on pivotal role in resolving missing persons
Solve this file in order to ‘heal the wounds’
Kuwait has commended the UN Security Council (UNSC) and all concerned bodies for their important and balanced role in researching for and identifying the bodies of prisoners, missing Kuwaitis, and third-country nationals and returning Kuwaiti property stolen during the Iraqi occupation in 1990. Addressing the UN Security Council, Kuwait’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Tareq Al-Bannai, urged Iraq to accelerate the pace of cooperation to completely resolve this humanitarian issue.
The issue of missing Kuwaitis and third-country nationals, as well as the return of Kuwaiti property, including the national archives, features high on the agenda of Kuwait’s foreign policy, he said. The Kuwaiti diplomat noted that, during his country’s non-permanent membership at the UNSC in 2019, Kuwait submitted the draft of the unanimously approved UNSC resolution No. 2474, which was the first of its kind on missing persons during armed conflicts.
Al-Bannai expressed Kuwait’s permanent delegation’s readiness to work with the Republic of Korea during its presidency of the UN Council, which will start next June, to implement the provisions of this resolution. He said that the resolution is a direct result of Kuwaitis’ bitter experience during the brutal Iraqi aggression in 1990 and of their firm belief in the human nature of this issue. This is a humanitarian file that Kuwait did not politicize and will not do so at any time, the ambassador affirmed, adding that the UNSC has assumed its responsibilities perfectly in handling the situation between the Republic of Iraq and the State of Kuwait.
Since 1990, the Council has gradually undertaken all available means and powers, such as establishing a peacekeeping mission, setting mechanisms for compensation, and demarcating the borders between Kuwait and Iraq, in accordance with Resolution No. 833. He commended the Security Council in particular and the United Nations in general for their wonderful success in handling this sensitive file.
With regard to the issue of missing Kuwaiti prisoners and persons and third-country nationals as well as the return of Kuwaiti property, including the national archives, Al-Bannai said “the Security Council issued Resolutions No. 686 and 687 of 1991 and No. 1284 of 1999 to give a high-level coordinator the responsibility of following up on this file before transferring these competencies to the UNAMI, in accordance with Security Council Resolution No. 2107 of 2013.
He thanked Iraq for its cooperation and understanding of the importance and sensitivity of this file, urging Iraqis at the same time to complete this cooperation and accelerate its pace to solve this file in order to “heal the wounds” of Kuwaitis. Previously called by the former UN secretary general as a “Humanitarian Center,” Kuwait is a small country in its size but big in terms of its giving, Ambassador Al-Bannai said, adding that “we have offered all our experiences and abilities to all countries, institutions, and organizations that have visited us, and we are fully prepared to serve this humanitarian cause inside and outside the Security Council.”.
The Ambassador pointed out that the UNAMI submits two separate reports to the Security Council: the first is concerned with its work and mandate, while the second is about missing Kuwaitis and the third country’s nationals, in addition to the missing Kuwaiti national property. He emphasized that Kuwait’s permanent delegation is fully prepared to work with all members of the Security Council, including the five newly joined countries, on this dossier.
Ambassador Al-Bannai thanked and appreciated the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Iraq and Head of the UNAMI, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, and all members of her team for their hard work and tangible efforts in moving this file forward and carrying out their tasks in this regard. He called for the continued submission of periodic reports about the progress in this file to the Security Council.
He warned “that any retreat from implementing these mechanisms, which proved successful and effective, will undermine and negatively affect all the strenuous efforts that have been made in this regard since 1991.” He said that the Kuwaiti permanent delegation’s participation for the first time as a speaker at the Security Council meetings concerned with the UNAMI mission showed that “we believe that this file is of a humanitarian, not political nature.”