Kuwait's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ambassador Mansour Al-Otaibi

NEW YORK: Kuwait's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ambassador Mansour Al-Otaibi on Friday presented a letter to UN Security Council president on identifying bodies of 13 Kuwaiti and third country nationals who were detained during the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait in 1990. The 13 bodies had been found in two burial sites in Iraq and were transferred to Kuwait for examination, according to the letter, registered as an official UNSC document.

Kuwait is still conducting examinations on several other bodies-which were received from Iraq-and will compare the results with the DNA database of its prisoners of war (POWs) and missing people, Ambassador Otaibi noted in the letter. He reaffirmed Kuwait's commitment to returning to Iraq all bodies whose DNA results do not match with any of the POWs. Otaibi also underlined that keenness on following up transparent and constructive steps in this regard. He renewed Kuwait's invitation to Iraq to get first-hand experience about its efforts and measures to examine the bodies received from Iraq in August 2019.

The Kuwaiti envoy thanked the Iraqi, US, British and French governments, members of all relevant committees, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) for their efforts that contributed to identifying the fate of those missing persons and prisoners amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It also thanked UN Security Council members for support to this humanitarian file and keenness on following up the full implementation of the UNSC resolution 2107 to help identify the fate of the remaining 346 POWs and missing people.

Training workshop

Separately, Kuwaiti Assistant Foreign Minister for Human Rights Affairs and Minister Plenipotentiary Talal Al-Mutairi said cooperation between Kuwait and the UN Human Rights Council (OHCHR) reflects keenness to keep pace with international recommendations. Mutairi made this statement after the conclusion of the virtual training workshop entitled "Interaction with International Human Rights or members of the Permanent Committee for the Preparation of International Reports and Recommendations Related to Human Rights," which was held recently.

This program is intended for members of the permanent national committee to prepare reports and follow up on international recommendations related to human rights headed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he added. The training program comes as a result of an agreement with the OHCHR in Geneva to hold annual capacity building activities for the benefit of government agencies in Kuwait, he noted. He pointed out that the Permanent National Committee to prepare reports and follow up on international recommendations related to human rights and with full support of Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Dr Ahmed Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Khaled Al-Jarallah. - KUNA