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From: Anwar Al-Ghassani <alghassa@racsa.co.cr> 01/09/2000 03:05:00 ET Iraq says to work with Saudi on Gulf War missing DOHA, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Iraq's foreign minister was quoted on Sunday as saying that Baghdad was ready to work with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to determine the fate of hundreds of people missing since the 1991 Gulf War. Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, on a visit to Qatar, also told the United Arab Emirates newspaper al-Bayan in an interview that experts from Saudi Arabia and Iraq may soon start work to recover the remains of a Saudi pilot who was buried in an Iraqi minefield after his plane was shot down in 1991. "Maybe soon, we will start some kind of cooperation with Saudi Arabia," Sahaf said in the interview. He said that Iraq had informed Saudi Arabia through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that it had found the wreckage of a Saudi warplane that was shot down in 1991 and that an Iraqi officer who had buried the pilot's body had also come forward. "This officer volunteered to go to that mined area again to identify the location where the pilot was buried," Sahaf said. Hundreds of people were reported missing after the 1990-91 Gulf War. Kuwait says Iraq was holding some 600 of its nationals prisoners in Baghdad. Baghdad denies holding any foreign prisoners but acknowledges that there were people missing. "We did not keep any prisoners, whether from Kuwait or from other nationalities, because we have no interest in doing so and because we consider it a shame to do so," Sahaf said. "But the Kuwaitis deny that 1,150 Iraqis were missing in Kuwait. We, therefore, demand that Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia cooperate under ICRC supervision in accordance with United Nations resolution 687 to find out the fate of all missing Iraqis, Saudis and Kuwaitis," he added. But he said Baghdad did not accept that the United States, Britain or France should sit in on the talks, saying that the fate of people missing from these countries had already been resolved. He said these countries had political motives for participation in the talks. "We have discussed all these issues with them and we handed them over their prisoners and directed them to the bodies of their (war) dead," Sahaf said. --------------------------- ONElist Sponsor ---------------------------- Get great offers on top-notch products that match your interests! Sign up for eLerts at: <a href=" http://clickme.onelist.com/ad/elerts1 ">Click Here</a> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Iraq List is member of Sindbad Communications' Media Group Iraq_L unsubscribe: mailto:Iraq_L-unsubscribe@onelist.com -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq For removal from list, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk Full archive and list instructions are available from the CASI website: http://welcome.to/casi