Iraq Holding Kuwaiti Prisoners

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Jan 8, 2001 | by Timothy W. Maier, | Catherine Edwards, | James Harder

In a groundbreaking interview with Radio Free Iraq, a former secret-police officer, Capt. Khalid Sachit Al-Janabi, said that he had seen 50 Kuwaiti prisoners of war imprisoned at Iraq's judicial bureau.

Ten years after the Persian Gulf War, Kuwait maintains that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein still holds 605 Kuwaiti prisoners of war (POWs). Insight reported from Kuwait City last summer that one in every 1,000 Kuwaitis still is missing. Iraq denies this allegation, but refuses to allow inspectors into Iraqi prisons to investigate the claims (see "Iraqis Still Hold Kuwaiti POWs," Aug. 21).

"Secrecy was very tight but I did see them." Al-Janabi said. He reported that all POWs are under the tight control of Saddam's son, Qusay Saddam Hussein, who is the chief of Iraq's secret police, and that the POWs were in extremely poor health and had experienced various means of torture.

Al-Janabi said that he was 100 percent sure that all the Kuwaiti POWs still were alive but that Saddam would not release them because they represent the "winning card" against Kuwait. "I would like to tell the Kuwaiti people that their sons are still there and that they should put pressure on Saddam to hand them over," he said.