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resolutions
UNITED NATIONS, March 19 (KUNA) - In an attempt to get out of Chapter 7 of
the UN Charter, Iraq on Thursday said it complied with most Security Council
resolutions pertaining to the Iraq-Kuwait situation and is willing to close
the remaining three files related to Kuwait bilaterally.
In a letter to the Security Council President, Libya, Iraqi Foreign
Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Iraq reviewed all council resolutions, beginning
with resolution 661 related to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in Augutst 1990
onwards, and "we find that Iraq has complied with all the obligations
contained therein, and that only three files remain which, with bilateral
cooperation, may be dealth with and closed."
Those files, he noted, concern the Kuwaiti missing persons and property,
the maintenance of the boundary pillars, and compensation of the victims of
that invasion.
In its council resolution, 1859, the council requested the
Secretary-General to report, after consultation with Iraq, on extent of
Baghdad's compliance with all relevant resolutions.
A UN official told KUNA today that a report in that regard will be issued
in June.
Reacting to the letter, Kuwaiti Ambassador Abdullah Murad told KUNA that
Kuwait will make sure all these issues will remain in the council and that he
will meet with the council president next Tuesday to hand him a letter on
Kuwait's position regarding Zebari's letter.
On the Kuwaiti missing persons, Zebari said the Secretary-General is
scheduled to issue a report to the council in April containing "full
information on and an evaluation of the progress that has been made" during
the last twelve months, and "include the conditions that will have to be met
and a timetable for the completion of the mandate" of Gennady Tarasov, the
High-Level Coordinator for the Kuwaiti detainees and stolen property.
Zebari said the "satisfactory outcome" on the fate of 236 out of 605
missing persons "would not have been possible without the cooperation of Iraq."
He said that "it is expected that further progress will be made in
discovering the remains of missing persons now that Iraq has informed Kuwait
of the possibility of identifying burial sites in Ramadi, which could contain
the remains of more than 12 Kuwaiti (former) prisoners."
He added that Iraq will attempt to return their remains to Kuwait, or
Kuwait may authorize a technical mission to Iraq for that purpose.
"Iraq has exerted every possible effort towards bringing this humanitarian
suffering to an end and has demonstrated and will continue to demonstrate its
good intentions and bona fides," he said.
"At the same time, however," he added, "we cannot accept that the mandate
of the High-Level Coordinator is open-ended and that the Security Council
remains seized of this file."
"We would like to end the Coordinator's mandate, and hope that the
forthcoming report of the Secretary-General (next month) will be the last
which he will submit to the Security Council on this issue," he said.
"The Government of Iraq believes that the time has come to transfer this
file from the Security Council, and for Iraq and Kuwait to deal with it
together, particularly in view of the fact that the mechanisms for bilateral
cooperation that came into being subsequent to the fall of the previous regime
were both fruitful and constructive," he said.
He suggested that the Tripartite Commission represents the "best machanism
for action" on the issue of the missing Kuwaitis.
As to the stolen Kuwaiti property, Zibari recalled that Iraq returned to
Kuwait earlier this month a number of audio tapes and television recordings
and "we are continuing in the same direction," expressing the "genuine desire
of Iraq to demonstrate its good intentions and close the files relating to
Kuwaiti missing persons and property."
He recalled that former Secretary-General Kofi Annan had suggested in one
of his reports to the council in 2003 and after the fall of the Saddam regime
to end the mandate of the former Coordinator Yuli Vorontsov and transfer the
file to Iraq and Kuwait to settle bilaterally.
"It would appear that the date envisaged for bringing the Coordinator's
mandate to a close has been greatly delayed," Zebari said.
On the boundary pillars at the Kuwait-Iraq border, Zebari expressed hope
that the final stage of their maintenance will be completed by next September
now that Iraq has complied with the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations's
conditions, including the removal of an Iraqi building from the Kuwaiti
territory and the construction of a road along the border inside the Iraqi
territory.
"That file must then become the joint concern of Iraq and Kuwait," he said.
He argued that some Iraqi citizens have suffered "losses as a result of the
demarcation of the Iraq-Kuwait boundary, because a number of Iraqi-owned
buildings and farms are now on the Kuwaiti side of the border."
He acknowledged that those Iraqi farmers will be compensated by a UN Fund
financed by Kuwait once the "Iraqi town that has been designated for them near
the Iraq-Kuwait border has been established."
He added that "Kuwait has undertaken to build that town in the Umm Qasr
area" and that Kuwait has submitted the plans for the town and the buildings
that will built there.
Regarding the Compensation fo the victims of the invasion, Zebari said it
was agreed at the 65th session of the UN Compensation Commission in Geneva
that negotiations would begin between Iraq and Kuwait "with a view to reaching
a settlement on that issue."
He said Iraq expects the council to "give serious consideration to the
matter of reducing the level of deductions to one percent (from current five
percent) of Iraqi oil revenues," arguing that the current financial crisis has
"severely damaged the fragile economy of Iraq" and its reconstruction.
All this, he concluded, "provides conclusive proof that we are eager to
fulfil our obligations and are working in a serious and responsible fashion
towards the closure of all the Security Council files on Iraq."
If Iraq succeeds in transfering these three pending files to be dealt with
bilaterally, Zebari argued, "it will help Iraq to finally break free of the
restraints and mechanisms that that been imposed on it under Security Counci
resolutions that were adopted pursuant to Chapter VII of the UN Charter and
that have impeded its peaceful and full return as an effective and responsible
member of the family of nations." (end)
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