ICRC'S BRAINSTORMING SESSION ON MISSING PROVIDES

UNCLAS KUWAIT 000587 SIPDIS NEA/ARP, NEA/I, OSD-DPMO FOR E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PHUM MARR PGOV IZ KU SUBJECT: ICRC'S BRAINSTORMING SESSION ON MISSING PROVIDES VENUE FOR CONTINUED IRAQI/KUWAITI COOPERATION REF: A. KUWAIT 566 ¶B. KUWAIT 354 ICRC Maintains Embassy Initiative Momentum -------------- ¶1. Capitalizing on the positive atmospherics of the June 1 Tripartite Commission's Technical Subcommittee meeting (ref A),ICRC assembled a panel of forensics experts for a June 7 "brainstorming session" on ways to accelerate the search for the missing -- on both sides of the border -- from the 1990-91 Iraqi invasion and occupation of Kuwait, following on an earlier Embassy initiative (ref B). Though Finding Remains is not an Exact Science,... -------------- -------------- ¶2. Discussions during the meeting focused on techniques to locate the missing and on technologies available to facilitate such searches. Participants also reviewed some of the advantages and disadvantages of using equipment such as ground penetrating radar, metal detectors and probes to help locate bodies. Participants collectively agreed that detailed eyewitness accounts -- as opposed to investment into expensive equipment -- would most likely lead to successful exhumations. Of key value to the meeting was the experience and expertise offered by USAF Major Laura Regan (forensic anthropologist from the US Armed Forces Medical Examiner System) who stressed the importance of preliminary investigations prior to exhumation attempts. She suggested that such investigations should include research through archives on the military unit to which the victims -- or the assailants -- belonged. ...Identifying Them Must Be. -------------- ¶3. The meeting also examined how DNA matching led to the identification thus far of some 236 Kuwaitis recovered from mass grave sites in Iraq. Forensics experts from Iraq and Kuwait shared notes on their respective scientific capabilities, and the GOK Ministry of Interior (MOI) expressed a willingness to provide training for Iraqi scientists. GOK scientists then conducted a tour for all participants of the MOI's General Department of Criminal Evidence. Participants -------------- ¶4. Along with the meeting's host, ICRC Kuwait's deputy regional delegate Mr. Moayed Golabi, and ICRC Baghdad's forensics specialist, in attendance were representatives from the Iraqi Ministry of Health's Medical Legal Institute Dr. Munjed al-Dezali and Dr. Falah Hassan Allami. Also participating was a team of forensics experts from the Kuwaiti Ministry of Interior, as well as a forensics pathologist from the US Armed Forces Medical Examiner System, and representatives from the US Embassy's Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Defense Attache office and Political section. The French and UK Embassies also sent representatives. In total, 19 officials participated in the meeting. ¶5. We understand from Embassy Baghdad that the GOI has now extended an invitation for KUWAIT to send a technical team to Iraq for this purpose. We will follow up accordingly. ********************************************* ********* For more reporting from Embassy Kuwait, visit: visit Kuwait's Classified Website at: http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Kuwa it ********************************************* ********* JONES