A decade after Gulf War, Kuwait POW wounds still open

By Roland Rahal

KUWAIT (Reuters): Fatmeh Saleh Ghanem says the scars are still too fresh for her to join in celebrations marking the 10th anniversary of Kuwait's liberation from Iraq.

For Ghanem and many other Kuwaiti mothers, the anniversary is a day to remember loved ones missing since Iraqi tanks rolled almost unopposed into the oil-rich Gulf Arab state in August 1990.

"Happiness does not enter our house, even on holy Muslim occasions. I sometimes cook a meal my son liked, put it in front of me, stare but never touch it," said Ghanem of her son Khaled, who was 17 when seized by invading Iraqi troops.

Ghanem herself and two of her daughters were held for four months before they broke free along with thousands of prisoners during the chaos that engulfed Iraq after U.S.-led coalition forces ended Baghdad's seven-month occupation and the Shi'ite Muslim uprising that followed soon afterwards in southern Iraq.

"The situation was horrible. One of my daughters was three years old and was wetting herself all the time out of fear," she told Reuters.

Officials and diplomats say the fate of some 605 missing people, 90 percent of them Kuwaitis, is one of the most emotive legacies of Iraq's occupation.

Baghdad has denied repeatedly that it is holding any of them and refused to meet a Russian envoy appointed by the United Nations to investigate the issue of the missing.

But Kuwait insists that it has compiled what it says was a full list supported by documents and eye-witness accounts to back its demands for their repatriation.

It says it has submitted the files to a tripartite commission made up of the allied coalition that ended Iraq's occupation, representatives from Baghdad and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The panel was set up in 1991 to coordinate the swift repatriation of POWs and a total of 6,000 Kuwaitis returned home through the ICRC in March of that year. Nothing has been heard about the other 605 since.

"I think 10 years on, it is shameful that Iraq has failed to explain the circumstances of the POW disappearance and declined to cooperate with efforts to explain their whereabouts," a Kuwait-based Western diplomat told Reuters.

Despite their traumas, many Kuwaitis still hold firm to their belief that they will reunite with their loved ones.

"We will not despair because these people are flesh and blood, not possessions to be forgotten in one day," said Ahmad Abdul- Wahab, whose brother and cousin are among the missing.

"I haven't heard about my missing son for 10 years now, but I thank God for giving me the hope of meeting him again," said a mother whose son was 18 when he was captured by the Iraqis.

Officially, Kuwait says it could deal with Iraq if it met conditions such as apologizing for the invasion and implementing all UN Security Council resolutions.

These include resolution 1284, which calls on Iraq to account for the missing and to cooperate with the tripartite commission.

Last June, Defense Minister Sheikh Salem Sabah al-Salem al- Sabah, who is in charge of the POWs issue, made a surprise offer to hold talks with Iraq if it released about 60 of the missing people.

Iraq dismissed his offer as a public relations stunt and reiterated that it was not holding any Kuwaitis.

For many years, Kuwait has provided families of the missing with financial support and set up offices to follow up on children's social, educational and psychological welfare.

"Whatever you offer the families of POWs, nothing will replace their beloved ones," said a volunteer at the POWs headquarters.

Many Kuwaitis still loathe and fear Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, once a close ally, 10 years after the invasion.

"Saddam is not a human being. He is the devil himself," Ghanem said.

Her sentiment is common in the emirate, where anger still holds sway among many Kuwaitis, resentful that Saddam stays in power.

"Saddam is a skeleton without feelings and without a heart. He has ruined my life", said a wife whose husband was taken in front of her eyes, leaving her to care for a son, now 13 and suffering from psychological problems.