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UNITED NATIONS, Nov 22 (KUNA) -- Iraq on Tuesday informed the President of
the Security Council, Portugal, that it was ready to hand over to Kuwaiti
officials some of the archives looted during the 1990 invasion, in
implementation of the Council's relevant resolutions.
Iraqi Ambassador Hamid Al-Bayati told the Council president in a letter
circulated today, that the Iraqi Foreign Minister sent a letter to the Kuwait
Embassy in Baghdad informing them of the existence of 136 microfilm cassettes
that include the official archive of the official newspaper 'Kuwait Today.'
The letter did not mention when the letter was sent to the Kuwaiti Embassy.
The cassettes, he said, are in good condition and ready for transmission.
The cassettes, he added, were handed over by an Iraqi citizen to the Iraqi
Foreign Ministry. No date was mentioned either.
"I have the honour to inform you that the Iraqi Government has implemented
the recommendations contained in the Secretary-General's report of last June
and that approval was obtained from the Iraqi authorities to form a committee
headed by a representative from the Foreign Ministry.
The committee's members, he indicated, include representatives from the
General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers, the Ministries of Defence,
Interior, Finance, Justice and Higher Education and Scientific Research and
the Central Bank of Iraq.
All of the representatives, he insisted, are at least at the rank of
General Director, and will be in charge of coordinating the efforts relating
to Kuwaiti national archives.
Kuwait insists on the return of all its national archives belonging to its
different ministries that were looted by forces of former Iraqi regime during
the 1990-91 seven-month occupation. (end)
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