HC Deb 11 January 1999 vol 323 cc80-1W
Mr. Curry

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what action he has taken to support Kuwait in pressing for the return home of Kuwaiti(a) missing persons and (b) prisoners of war, or of their remains, from Iraq following the Gulf conflict. [64583]

Mr. Fatchett

We continue to play a leading role in the Tripartite Commission and Technical Sub-Committee meetings which work to resolve the cases of the 600 or more Kuwaitis missing since the Gulf War. We fully support the International Committee of the Red Cross which chairs these meetings in its attempts to seek the truth about the whereabouts of the missing. We have seen reports that Iraq has postponed indefinitely its participation in the Technical Sub-Committee meetings. We are discussing this further with the ICRC. We are concerned at this sign of a new level of Iraqi non-cooperation on the issue. It is appalling that Iraq has done so little to date to account for the Kuwaiti missing.