Global Policy Forum

Kuwaiti parliament's Legal Affairs Committee Saturday decided to form a sub-committee to consider the legal aspects of trial of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussain and his followers and compensation for losses due to the 1990 Iraqi aggression on Kuwait, according to Committee Chairman Abdullah Al Roumi. Al Roumi said the new committee will start operation soon and consider views of experts and the government before presenting a report with its final conclusions to the head committee, KUNA reported yesterday. Kuwait had earlier last year demanded $170 billion in war reparations for the 1990 Iraqi invasion, and pressed to play an active role in the trial of its arch-foe Saddam Hussain. Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah said that Kuwait must take part in the trial who was captured by US forces. "Kuwait must be a part in trying Saddam Hussain for the aggressions and crimes" he committed against the country during the seven-month occupation, She-ikh Sabah said. "I believe that Kuwaitis deserve to be the first - along with Iraqis - in getting the opportunity to try Saddam because of the magnitude of his crimes against us," Badriya Al Awadi, an expert in international law, said. "His forces committed horrendous crimes against the environment by setting ablaze (more than 700) oil wells. He committed all forms of war crimes. His occupation of Kuwait was a crime against international peace," Awadi said. The Iraqi army invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990 but was driven out seven months later by a US-led multinational coalition.

The Kuwaiti cabinet in October last year formed a special committee to account for war crimes committed by Iraqi officials during Baghdad's occupation of the emirate, including Saddam. A United Nations expert on war crimes visited Kuwait last year to help the country prepare indictments against former Iraqi officials. Justice Minister Ahmad Baqer had announced in parliament that Sharif Basyouni, who worked on cases against alleged Serbian war criminals, lead a UN team to assist a Kuwaiti government committee on ways to prepare lawsuits and file them in courts. Kuwait charges that Iraqi troops committed numerous war crimes, including killing at least 1,000 civilians, detaining thousands of prisoners, perpetrating widescale torture and confiscating property. About 600 Kuwaiti prisoners and nationals of third countries went missing during the occupation. Since the ouster of Saddam's regime during the US-led invasion last March, the country has identified the remains of 45 of them in mass graves. Awadi said the Kuwaiti side should focus on the criminal aspects of the trial since the United Nations Compensation Commission has already accepted Kuwait's claims.