PRESS STATEMENT ON KUWAIT AND THIRD COUNTRY NATIONALS BY SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT

PRESS STATEMENT ON KUWAIT AND THIRD COUNTRY NATIONALS

BY SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT

Following is the press statement on the Secretary-General’s fifteenth report on Kuwaiti and third country nationals, delivered today by Security Council President Gunter Pleuger (Germany):

On 21 April, members of the Security Council received a briefing from Ambassador Yuli Vorontsov, the Secretary-General’s High-Level Coordinator, on the fifteenth report of the Secretary-General, in accordance with paragraph 14 of Security Council resolution 1284 (1999).  Council members once again expressed their full support for Ambassador Vorontsov’s work and for his continued efforts.

Council members shared the views expressed by the Secretary-General in his report and strongly condemned the execution of Kuwaiti and third country nationals by the previous Iraqi regime, in violation of human rights and international humanitarian law.  Security Council members expressed the hope that those responsible for these horrendous crimes should be brought to justice.

Council members expressed their deepest condolences to all of the families of those missing persons that had now been identified.  Members of the Council also expressed their continuing concern for the plight of the families of those missing persons whose whereabouts were still unknown.

Members of the Council once again stressed the importance of the work of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Tripartite Commission and its Technical Subcommittee, the Coalition Provisional Authority and relevant Iraqi authorities.  Council members call on all parties concerned to continue to work towards a satisfactory solution to all of the outstanding humanitarian aspects covered by Ambassador Vorontsov’s mandate.

Council members expressed the hope that Ambassador Vorontsov would be able to visit Baghdad to take his work forward, agreed to keep his mandate under review and recalled that Iraq will continue to have international obligations, as set out in paragraph 14 of Security Council resolution 1284 (1999), after 30 June 2004.

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