(C) GULF WAR MISSING: IRAQ FORMALLY ACCEPTS TPC

C O N F I D E N T I A L KUWAIT 005262

SIPDIS

STATE FOR D, NEA/FO, NEA/ARP, NEA/NGA, IO/UNP
GENEVA FOR STONECIPHER
LONDON FOR GOLDRICH
PARIS FOR OFRIEL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/04/2012
TAGS: PREL KPOW IZ KU ICRC
SUBJECT: (C) GULF WAR MISSING: IRAQ FORMALLY ACCEPTS TPC
PROPOSAL

REF: A) KUWAIT 5236 AND PREVIOUS B) USUN 2969

Classified By: (U) AMBASSADOR RICHARD H. JONES; REASON 1.5 (B, D)


1. (C) ICRC sent us a copy December 4 of a Note Verbale that
its office in Baghdad had received the same day from the
Iraqi Foreign Ministry, accepting the Tripartite Commission
(TPC) proposal to suspend the TSC quorum rule for four
months. (ICRC's informal translation from Arabic follows at
paragraph 2.) ICRC Regional Delegate told PolChief that his
headquarters will move swiftly to convene an extraordinary
session of the full TPC in Geneva, whose sole agenda item
will be the formal approval of the proposal. Meyer expected
this meeting would take place within "one or two weeks."


2. (C) Meanwhile, the Deputy Chairman of Kuwait's National
Committee for Missing and POW Affairs (NCMPA),Dr. Ibrahim
Shaheen, told the Ambassador that Kuwait would insist on
playing the Geneva meeting by the book: the Iraqis could
choose to be represented by whomever they pleased, but the
Kuwaitis would send their usual TPC delegation, and counted
on the other members' ambassadors who normally attend from
Kuwait to be there as well.


3. (C) ICRC's informal translation of the Iraqi note from
the original Arabic is as follows:

BEGIN TEXT:

No. 7/6/1/4/68181
Date: 22/Ramadan/1423
27.11.2002

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Iraq
presents its compliments to the Delegation of the
International Committee of the Red Cross in Baghdad.
Reference is made to the Delegation's Note NO. BAG 02/2686 of
31.10.2002 and to the meeting of 26.11.2002 between Head of
the Legal Department in this Ministry and Mr Marcus Dolder,
Head of Delegation. The Ministry has the honour to inform it
that the Iraqi Government has agreed on the proposal
subject-matter of the above-mentioned Note concerning the
suspension of the Rule on Legal Quorum of the Technical
Subcommittee (Rule No.8). The Ministry would like to
emphasise, with a benefiting aim, that it is specially
important to extend the suspension period for more than four
months. The Ministry would also like to express its hope
that the ICRC would undertake every possible effort to extend
the above-mentioned period of time with a view to achieving
further progress in the process of tracing the fate of Iraqi
and Kuwaiti missing persons.

The Ministry avails itself of this opportunity to convey to
the Delegation of the International Committee of the Red
Cross its utmost appreciation and respect.
END TEXT.


4. (C) COMMENT: This Iraqi action, foreshadowed ref A, is
not quite what ref B reports that UN High-Level
Representative Vorontsov intends to put in his upcoming
report. Ref B paragraph 3, fourth tick quotes the Vorontsov
report as mentioning "Iraq's decision to participate in the
Technical Sub-Committee of the Tripartite Commission, even if
U.S. and UK representatives were present." In fact, what
Iraq has accepted, implicitly, is to participate in some
manner in a meeting of the full TPC, and then in TSC meetings
with only two other TPC members (almost certainly Kuwait and
Saudi Arabia).
RJONES