S/PV.2959 Security Council

The provisional agenda for this meeting is before the Council in document S/Agenda/2959. If I hear no objection, I shall consider the agenda adopted. I call on the representative of Cuba on a point of order. Mr. ALARCON de QUESADA (Cuba) (interpretation from Spanish}: My delegation apologizes to all the members of the Council, and in particular to the Permanent Representative of Kuwait, who requested this meeting. We have no wish to delay the meeting or to deny the Council the opportunity to hear the testimony which the representative has asked to present. In other words, we have no difficulty concerning the item on the provisional agenda. Nevertheless, my delegation is obliged to put its point of view at this formal meeting of the Security Council, since in this case, contrary to the practice always followed by the Security Council, the formal meeting has not been preceded by the usual informal consultations to consider the provisional agenda. My delegation wishes to draw the attention of members of the Council to the fact that today it is exactly one week since four Permanent Representatives of countries members of the Security Council asked the President formaliy to convene a meeting of this body to consider a draft resolution on a subject ~ the situation in the territories occupied by Israel - which the Council had pledged in its most recent resolution on the subject, resolution 673 (1990), that it would consider promptly - and that was a month ago. So far, the delegations that requested the meeting - a request that was fully in accordance with the provisional rules of procedure of the Security Council - have received no response and the Council has not yet been able to meet to consider the draft resolution. ! Since there was no opportunity to submit this proposal in informal consultations, which on this occasion, as an exception, did not take place, my delegation is obliged to propose here that we add to the provisional agenda another item, relating to consideration of the draft resolution which the members of the Council have before them in document §/21933/Rev.1. I must make a further explanation to the members of the Council. The draft resolution, which refers to the report of the Secretary-General on the situation in Palestine, has been revised by the sponsors taking into account the very valuable opinions and suggestions of other delegations, in particular the delegation of Finland. We submitted the draft resolution to the Secretariat yesterday afternoon for distribution. Unfortunately, the Secretariat was not able until a few minutes ago to distribute in this Chamber a text that it had had in its possession several hours before. I regret this, but it is not the fault of those who duly submitted the text to the Secretariat yesterday afternoon. In conclusion, therefore, my delegation proposes that an additional item be added to the provisional agenda, so that the Council can at last consider the draft resolution in question. .

First, with regard to the representative of Cuba's concern about informal meetings of the Security Council, no informal meetings were held in this case because we are resuming consideration of an item, and it is our Standard practice in those circumstances to hold our meetings without prior informal consultations. In addition, as a result of a conversation I had with a representative from the group sponsoring the draft resolution to which the representative of Cuba referred, I had indicated an intent to hold informal consultations in response to his request immediately after the presentation this morning by the representative of Kuwait. Thus, the Council and others having, as I hope, extended to the representative of Kuwait the courtesy of hearing his presentation, I will give im an opportunity to make his statement, after which we will proceed immediately to informal consultations on the subject raised by the representative of Cuba. : Mr. ALARCON de QUESADA (Cuba) (interpretation from Spanish}: According to my delegation's recollection, this is the first time that we have come directly to this Chamber for a formal meeting without first meeting in the smail room where we meet informally. But, in any event, we are prepared to accept your interpretation, Sir, as far as the informal meetings are concerned. (Mr. Alarcon ds Quesada, Cuba) Now, I wonder: Do we need an informal meeting in order to consider the official request of four delegations which, in accordance with the rules of this Council, have asked that a draft resolution, which is already in the possession of the members of the Council,’ be considered? Do we need consultations on that other item, the occupied territories, which are under constant consideration in this Council? Do we need informal consultations for some issues, at some times, for some resolutions, but not for others? If your theory with regard to the lack of need for informal consultations for this meeting is true, Mr. President, then that theory also applies to consideration of the draft resolution submitted by those four delegations. I do not want to delay the proceedings. I am just proposing that we add this item to the agenda. | Zhe PRESIDENT: I am sorry that the memory of the representative of Cuba and mine differ. I am relying on 45 years of memory with respect to the work and practice of the Council. It is certainly my view that we can have an informal meeting to discuss the question. The representative of Cuba took note of the fact that the revised draft resolution has just been circulated and been placed before the members of the Council. In the tradition of the Council, a courtesy period is usually extended to delegations to allow them to consider such drafts. I believe that it would not be untoward for us to have an informal meeting to discuss this particular question. If have been engaged in extensive consultations over the past 24 hours on this subject and I believe that a number of delegations feel the same and would like to express their views in informal consultations. Mr. AL-ASHTAL (Yemen) {interpretation from Arabic): I too would like to apologize to the representative of Kuwait with regard to any delay that could affect the meeting that we are holding and with regard to any delay that could (Mr. Al-Ashtal, Yemen) follow my intervention. But I shall be briet in order to enable us to continue with our meeting as scheduled. Yemen is one of the Menber States which have sponsored the draft resolution in document S/21933, dated 8 November. May I recall here and remind the members of the Council, and other representatives present, that this draft resolution relates to the incidents of Al-Quds ‘where 20 Palestinians were killed. The draft resolution was put before the Council three weeks ago and has been subject to a number of amendments. Finally, this morning it was issued in the document bearing the same number as Rev.1, as a revised text. The delegation of Yemen and the other members which co-sponsored this draft resolution have co-operated in order to reach a draft that would meet with the consensus approval of the Counei1 or at least the widest possible extent of agreement. We have done that because we are keen on keeping this Council united in its position concerning the different issues and the different questions. We will continue to co-operate in order to achieve this goal. But, Mr. President, after three weeks of consultations, we have had enough. We cannot understand any longer why the Council is allowing the postponement of taking a decision on a certain draft resolution on one very important issue, while the Council discusses and considers other items and other issues. In order for this Council to retain its credibility and in order for the Council to work in a coherent and systematic manner, we are of the opinion that we have to decide, at this meeting, the question of taking a decision on the draft resolution which has been submitted to the Council. I am officially moving that the Security Council meet at 3 o'clock this afternoon in order to consider this issue and in order to consider the draft resolution that has been submitted. Mr. RAZALI (Malaysia): I too should like to apologize sincerely to the representative of Kuwait and to the Government of Kuwait for delaying a matter that it is definitely the right of Kuwait to present before the Council with all the attendant excesses being carried out in Kuwait itself. Even at the cost of delaying it, I have no choice but to seek this avenue as it has not been made possible for us to do otherwise. I share the views of Cuba and Yemen that the item that has been mentioned necessitates urgent and immediate consideration for all the reasons that have been made known to you, Mr. President, and for all the reasons that are known to all the members of the Council. In my judgement there exists a definite majority in the Council in favour of considering this item now in a formal way and of taking a vote on it. I would appeal to you, Mr. President, to take immediate steps today to act accordingly, Sir David HANNAY (United Kingdom): I have been listening very carefully to the unscripted debate we are having now, and the most important element that I received from this was your own statement, Mr. President, in reply to the representative of Cuba, that you were prepared to schedule informal consultations on the matter which the other representatives have raised. I think the sensible way to proceed is indeed to have you propose a time for that informal consultation and then to take the matter on from there. My delegation has a number of observations which it will wish to make on the text that has just been circulated by four members of the Council and which we received about one hour ago. I will have instructions on that text and i think we should follow the normal procedure where texts are concerned - and of course in the meeting we are having this morning we are not talking about the text of a draft (Sir David Hannay, United Kingdom) resolution - and have informal consultations. But it will be perhaps helpful to all of us, Mr. President, if you could schedule a time for that and then, since the time certainly would be known, we could get on with the business of the Council.

I thank the representative of the United Kingdom for his suggestion. I had hoped that I had made clear that I was scheduling an informal consultation immediately upon the completion here of the statement of the representative of Kuwait. Mr. TORNUDD (Finland): Mr. President, we are now engaged in a procedural debate and I find myself in a situation where I have not yet this month had the opportunity to congratulate the United States on its accession to the presidency for November. So I shall begin by extending to you our congratulations and our hope for success in the month of November. I also wish to express my thanks to Sir David Hannay, the Ambassador of the United Kingdom, for his excellent performance during the month of October. I wanted to add a few words to the procedural debate we are now having, only to say that my delegation has been working very intensively with the issue of the Israeli-occupied territories in recent days and that we are still in the process of having consultations on this subject. We still see that there might be some possibilities of reaching an outcome that would we hope, be, acceptable to everyone, or at least widely acceptable to all members of this Council. We would therefore appeal to those who have proposed that we should move immediately on this subject to qive us a little bit more time. Therefore, we should in particular like to support the idea of having informal consultations today, as early as possible, in order to see precisely where we stand on this matter.

I thank the representative of Finland for the kind words he addressed to me. If no one else wishes to speak, I shall decide at this point, as President, to repeat once again my invitation to the Council to meet in informal consultations immediately following the statement by the representative of Kuwait, which is scheduled for this morning. In response to the request of the representative of Yemen, I will be pleased to discuss in that informal meeting the question of an early resumption of the debate which he requests on the situation in the occupied , territories. I hope that through that process the Council will be able to reach an early decision on what it will be doing next in regard to this item. not to delay any further the consideration of item 2 on the provisional agenda, my delegation accepts the proposal that you have made, Sir, on the understanding that as a result of those informal consultations the Security Council at last will be able to take action on a draft resolution that it has had before it for some time. We do not believe that the informal consultations could lead to a situation that would only prolong something which I must say is rather anomalous. I do not have 45 years' experience in the Council, but I have experience of almost a year and, also, I am familiar with the rules of procedure of this organ. Any delegation has the right to submit a draft resolution, and it does not require the approval of a given number of delegations for that draft resolution to be put to a vote. This is not an attempt to impose a text on anyone. We believe that everyone should be able to express an opinion on it and to vote, or veto, or abstain, or vote in favour. We do not want to leave the impression that the rules of the Council mean that this discussion which, through no fault of our own, has taken place in a public meeting, could be lost in informal consultations and then lead to nothing. In other words, we are prepared to re-examine this issue, in informal consultations, immediately after we hear the representative of Kuwait. But I should like to emphasize clearly that we expect that this Council as soon as possible - indeed, later this very day -— will be able to consider and vote on our draft resolution. rhe PRESIDENT: I thank the representative of Cuba for his acceptance of the proposal I have made. I am sure that his hopes for that meeting will not fail to be presented by him when we meet in informal consultation. If I may, I should now like to proceed to the adoption of the agenda. Unless I hear any objection, I shall consider the agenda adopted. Zhe agenda was adopted. THE SITUATION BETWEEN IRAQ AND KUWAIT

In accordance with the decisions taken at the 2950th meeting, I invite the representative of Kuwait to take a place at the Council table. At the invitation of the President, Mr. Abulhasan (Kuwait) took a place at the Council table.

I should like to inform the Council that I have received letters from the representatives of Bahrain, Egypt and Saudi Arabia in which they request to be invited to participate in the discussion of the item on the Council's agenda. In conformity with the usual practice, I propose, with the consent of the Council, to invite those representatives to participate in the discussion without the right to vote, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Charter and rule 37 of the Council's provisional rules of procedure. There being no objection, it is so decided. At the invitation of the President, Mr. Abdul Ghaffar (Bahrain}, Mr. Moussa (Egypt) and Mr. Shihabi (Saudi Arabia) took the places reserved for them at the side of the Council Chamber.

I should like to inform the Council that I have received a letter dated 26 November 1990 from the Permanent Representative of Egypt to the United Nations, which reads as follows: “In my capacity as Chairman of the Islamic Group at the United Nations, I have the pleasure to request that His Excellency Ambassador A. Engin Ansay, Permanent Observer to the United Nations of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, be invited to participate in the Security Council's discussion of the item entitled ‘The situation between Iraq and Kuwait’ in accordance with rule 39 of the Council's provisional rules of procedure." That letter will be published as a document of the Security Council under the symbol S/21968. If I hear no objection, I shall take it that the Council agrees to extend an invitation under rule 39 to Mr, A. Engin Ansay. There being no objection, it is so decided. The Security Council will now resume its consideration of the item on its agenda. Members of the Council have before them document 8/21966, which contains the text of a draft resolution submitted by Kuwait. Cdte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Finland and Zaire have joined as sponsors of the draft resolution. I should like to draw the attention of the members of the Council to documents §/21914, 8/21943, S/21951, S/21955, S/21961, S/21962, S/21963 and S/21965, which contain letters dated 28 October and 15, 20, 23 and 26 November 1990, respectively, from the Permanent Representative of Kuwait to the United Nations. The first speaker on my list is the representative of Kuwait, on whom I now call. Mr. ABULHASAN (Kuwait) (interpretation from Arabic): Although we are approaching the end of the month in which you, Sir, have demonstrated remarkable efficiency in presiding over the Security Council, I cannot but congratulate you, on behalf of the delegation of the State of Kuwait and on my own behalf, for the prudent manner in which you have been guiding the Council's work. You have brought to the presidency a tremendous wealth of experience and outstanding skills which have indeed been the hallmark of your performance throughout a long career in the field of diplomacy and an impressive record in the service of your great country, the United States, which now stands in the forefront of the defenders of the supremacy of the rule of law over the law of the jungle. My country's delegation is also pleased to place on record its thanks and appreciation to our friend, Sir David Hannay, the Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom, for his impressive stewardship of the Council during the last month, I should also like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the United Kingdom, a friendly country with which we have had longstanding historical ties, for the essential role it is playing in order to ensure the defeat of aggression | and the achievement of justice and peace in our region. One hundred and sixteen days have passed since the Iraqi invasion and occupation of the State of Kuwait, which was an oasis of peaceful harmony and a well of benevolence and whose people remain steadfast in resistance. One hundred and sixteen days have passed since the blatant breach of the United Nations Charter, the Charter of the League of Arab States, the Charter of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, and the principles of non-alignment. One hundred and sixteen days have passed since the Iragi aggression against all international laws and covenants, especially against the principles and values of Islam. One hundred and sixteen days have passed since the naked, open defiance of the will of this lofty Council, which adopted resolution 660 (1990) only a few hours after that brutal aggression was launched against my beloved country, Kuwait, on 2 August. Furthermore, Iraq continues to defy the Arab and Islamic will by rejecting the resolution of the Council of Arab Foreign Ministers held in Cairo on 3 August, the resolution of the nineteenth session of the Foreign Ministers of Islamic countries held in Cairo on 5 August and resolution 195 adopted by the Emergency Arab Summit held in Cairo on 10 August. All those resolutions condemned Iraq and demanded its immediate and unconditional withdrawal from Kuwait. Yet defiance persists, thus undermining the peace and security of the region, as well as the peace of the world and its political, economic and social security. One hundred and sixteen days have passed with a continuous, escalating violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and its protocols, as a result of the barbaric acts committed by the aggressive, invading army against my innocent, unarmed Kuwaiti compatriots and residents of third countries in Kuwait. Individual and mass arrests continue unabated. There are also increasing numbers of cases of disappearing Kuwaiti citizens who are unaccounted for but assumed to be languishing in the darkness of that régime's prisons and detention centres. Also, many Kuwaiti military prisoners of war are yet to be accounted for. Brutal torture of Kuwaitis continues in Kuwait itself and inside Iraqi internment centres and prisons without any international monitoring because of constant Iraqi refusal to allow humanitarian organizations to look into the deteriorating living conditions of the Kuwaiti people in general and the prisoners there in particular. This is a disgraceful violation of the provisions of the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions of 1949. The Iraqi aggression against my country, Kuwait, occurred at a time when massive, world-wide endeavours started to bear fruit after long, bitter and strenuous efforts have been made to give concrete shape to a new world order wherein evil tendencies and the spirit of aggression would disappear. That would be an order based on the reactivation of the United Nations Charter and its goals, an order under which States would rid themselves of the burden of limitless armament and move on to channel their resources to economic development, an order in which the major Powers have begun to co-operate rather than compete, and to establish universal justice as the mainstay of government and to harness their peoples' energies and creativity to promote the well-being of the human individual! instead of deepening the evil tendencies that would eventually destroy mankind. Thus, the Iraqi aggression dealt a devastating blow to all the good hopes and the noble, legitimate aspirations of millions of people to see a world free of malice and hatred. Commensurate with the magnitude of that aggression was the decisiveness of the prompt and united international reaction in rejecting fully all that was perpetrated by the Iraqi régime against its neighbour, Kuwait. In an unprecedented fashion, your august Council adopted 10 resolutions under Chapter VII of the Charter. Hence it is only logical for all of us to raise a pertinent question about the reaction on the part of the aggressor Iraqi régime. And the answer - it comes as no surprise - is a typical reflection of the true nature of the aggressor régime, namely total rejection of any move towards peace - rejection of Security Council resolutions, rejection of the Leaque of Arab States resolutions, rejection of the Islamic Conference's resolutions and rejection of the pleas and resolutions of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries. On top of every other rejection, that régime rejected even the humanitarian endeavours undertaken by the Secretary-General of the United Nations when he assigned two envoys to examine the conditions of the population of the State of Kuwait - both Kuwaitis and foreigners - and to review their situation and needs. The occupying Power also refused to receive any team from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) or any other international or regional humanitarian agency. Moreover, it refused even to grant landing permission for a chartered aircraft carrying medicine for the population of Kuwait, that was to be distributed under the supervision of the ICRC and the cost of which was to be borne by the State of Kuwait. After that catalogue of rejections, is it not really paradoxical that some are still pleading for the Iraqi régime to be given something to save its face? Are we expected to reward the aggressor for his aggression? The obvious answer is no, no. In point of fact, the only response lies in your historic resolutions which must be scrupulously implemented and complied with in the interest of the new world order, in which the spirit of human brotherhood, love and peace would reign supreme. In its aggression and occupation of Kuwait, the Iragi régime not only targeted the land for expansion and the political will of the Kuwaiti people as an objective, but went far beyond that. Indeed, from the very first hours of its aggression, it embarked upon practising a very strange type of action against the Muslim Kuwaiti people - actions which nobody has ever contemplated, such as unprovoked killings, torture, displacement, violation of individual sanctities and rape, humiliation of the dignity of the human person, intimidation of innocent civilians and organized looting of all movable items and the destruction of immovable assets in a manner reminiscent of the days of piracy and primitive wars. Such actions and practices by the Iraqi régime and its invading army were perpetrated in a way that clearly reveals a really sick and sadistic mentality betraying profound malice in a desperate attempt to destroy the really fine model, the Kuwaiti political system, in which the people of the country fully identified with their rulers within a well-defined framework of relationships forged on the principles of loyalty, constructive work and co-operation in order to create a socio-political structure that enjoys welfare, harmony and internal peace. It is a community that has been and will continue to be a source of pride for the people of Kuwait and others outside Kuwait; a community whose form and institutions are an inspiration to many peoples throughout the world who aspire to emulate it and benefit from its experiences. It is a community that did not keep its wealth exclusively to itself or shut its doors in the face of others. Quite the contrary, Kuwait has kept its doors constantly open for the benefit of all without hindrance. That is the essence of the challenge that exposed the Iraqi régime before its people, who were fascinated by the Kuwaiti experience and its civilized national enterprise. The Iraqi régime, however, squandered its enormous resources on futile, meaningless wars and military adventures and on buying spheres of influence and agents. | The Iraqi régime's practices against the Kuwaiti people have surpassed any stretch of the imagination, and went far beyond the limitations and restrictions, set down in any charter or convention. The cries of agony can be heard across the border as the brutal and inhumane practices of the aggressor have forced many honourable Kuwaitis to leave their families, homes and the land of their fathers and forefathers behind in order to inform the entire world of the atrocities perpetrated by the aggressor Iraqi army. Those people of good conscience left Kuwait, and each one of them holds deep within his or her heart first-hand accounts of horror stories and dreadful episodes in which, one way or another, they were personally involved. In order to enable them to report the truth in a direct and spontaneous manner and to allow their message to reflect the truth of current events in Kuwait, and in order for Council members to keep that message in their hearts and minds and in the records of the Council, in the hope that it may prompt the Council to respond, my country's delegation has the honour to be joinea now by some brothers and sisters, who will speak before the Council of their experiences under the occupation and its effects on individuais, the economy and virtually everything in Kuwait. They will give the Council their accounts of the effects of the aggression against Kuwait and the Arab world in particular, as well as the world as a whole, from economic and social perspectives. I have pleasure in introducing to the Council the following witnesses: Mrs. Fatima Fahed, Mrs. Iman Adnan, Dr. Issah Ibrahim; Mr. Mukarji; Mr. Shamma; and Mr. Fawzi Badr. I hope that great attention will be paid to their accounts. A video tape was played in the Council Chamber. The following is a transcript of segments of the audio portion. VOICE (interpretation from Arabic): "It was as if a gang had entered a country and had a limited time - perhaps one hour - in which to steal as much as it could.” WOMAN'S VOICE (interpretation from Arabic): "When I was leaving Kuwait, I had my little baby, who was sick, with me. The Iraqis refused to let me take my sick child. They said he was less than a year old and that I had to leave him in Kuwait. I was scared. When I begged a soldier to let me take my sick baby, they tried to pull him out of my arms. I asked him whether he was married or had any children. He said no. I told him that he therefore couldn't know what it is to be a father or to know how precious a child is to a father or mother. They ridiculed me to the point that I cried. When I cried even more, they laughed at me." VOICE (interpretation from Arabic): "They said that if we didn't want the retarded people they would take them to Irag or kill them. It is against God's law." VOICE {interpretation from Arabic): "My name is Sultan Ahmad Sultan Al-Ali. When they brought my mentally retarded sister to us, they told us that if we couldn't feed her they could take her back to Baghdad with the rest of the mentally retarded. They said that if there wasn't enough food available in Kuwait to feed her, they could feed her. We replied that when the Government of Kuwait was in charge of the country it had taken good care of her, They said that if we didn't want the mentally retarded they could give each one of them a bullet and let them rest from this world.” VOICE (interpretation from Arabic): “What Saddam did points to the Hitlerism of his character. I was driving in my car when Iragi troops came racing up behind me. They mounted my car and gave me these injuries." WITNESS NO. i: I speak to you today on behalf of all Kuwaiti women and children who remain in our homeland. They are stranded and they have been brutally terrorized by Iraqi soldiers. On their behalf, I thank you, Mr. President, and ‘the Security Council for granting me this opportunity. I too lived under the occupation of my homeland for more than two months. It is on that basis that I give my testimony. Kuwait is not a large nation. It is a small country with extended families. We Kuwaitis know each other well enough to be known always as the society of one family. The strength of the society of one family created the first and the main obstacle to Saddam in his continual attempts to break through. I must ask this: could it be that our strength, our unity, our sense of family, provided Saddam with an excuse for the brutal and indescribable horror that is Kuwait's fate at the moment, The story is told that one Iraqi officer made this comment to a group of Kuwaiti detainees: "It is about time that your Kuwaiti people knew our style. We normally arrest 100 people in order to get to the one person we might have need of." I went personally with a group of women to the main headquarters of the Iraqi army in Kuwait. My purpose was to attempt to represent some innocent detainees and assist in obtaining their release, The officer in charge at the headquarters made it very clear that there was no hope. His words will live with me for ever. He said: "Anyone with us is lost." I do not wish to bore you. Therefore, I have chosen to relate three incidents out of scores of such stories that I personally have experienced. First, the wife of one young, very well-known Kuwaiti gynaecologist told me of her nightmare. She said: “"Iwenty-five to 30 armed men broke into my home at exactly 12.30 in the morning. Within just a few seconds, I found them in my bedroom. They had with them the youngest of my children, a child only one year old. The intruders threw the child on the floor. “Then the officer placed his boot on top of the child's head. He pressed the boot into the youngster's head and he asked my husband a question related _ to the hospital. My husband denied having any of the knowledge the officer was seeking, and the boot pressed more heavily on my baby's head, and the child's constant crying grew louder. "Not satisfied with my husband's answer, the soldiers searched my home for several hours. At the end, they took my husband with them. “Four days later the soldiers returned with my husband, tortured to the extent that I could not recognize him. They called me, my mother-in-law, my father-in-law, the neighbours and the children, and they shot him dead." Kuwaiti citizens were not the only persons to be terrorized by the soldiers of Saddam. Their brutality reached expatriates who for years had been living in Kuwait in peace and making decent livings. This is my second story. A Moroccan lady who was a neighbour of mine came fo me one day in tears. She was the mother of two children, one about 18 months old and the other three and a half years. She told me she had taken both her daughters to the hospital for a simple treatment. Instead of providing the treatment, the Iraqis forcibly removed blood from her tiny children in order to give the blood to injured Iraqi soldiers, My third and final story is this. A young man who was about 20 years old was driving his car and stopped at one of the Iraqi checkpoints, A very simple argument developed between him and the soldiers about whether the curfew was 7.30 p.m. or 8 p.m. It was as simple as that, The soldiers took the boy and confiscated his car. They had two demands: the Iraqis wanted the young man to confess to being a member of the Kuwaiti resistance and to supply the soldiers with the information they wanted, including the names and addresses of all his friends, whether or not they were members of the resistance. The young man could not do as the authorities asked. Neither he nor his friends had anything to do with the resistance. The interrogations became totally humiliating. Then came whippings and beatings that lasted exactly three days, non-stop. What he saw was even more painful than the treatment he endured. Some of his fellow prisoners were forced to sit in tubs of salt water after the beatings. After a one-day rest he was again interrogated. The second interrogation, just like the first, was conducted while the young man was blindfolded. The beating this time was concentrated on the bottoms of the young man's feet. After repeated beatings he was told to jump and land on his feet. He thought that would put an end to his agony, so he jumped. The Iraqis then determined that he had not been beaten sufficiently and they resumed the torture until he was unable to stand. They gave him what is known as a "day-rest", in other words a nerve-racking interrogation. Then they told him he would be executed. They blindfolded him and dragged him to a small, closed chamber. All of a sudden, hundreds of bullets were fired near him, in the air and on the walls, until the boy collapsed and fainted. The following day he tried to commit suicide. This young man was released after 18 days, having lost 12 kilograms. He is now under constant physical and psychiatric care. These incidents are only a few of thousands. The styles differ; the allegations vary; but they all lead to a crucial violation of the absolute minimum of human rights. The Kuwait I call on the world to rescue is not the Kuwait of a barrel of oil. Rather, it is the Kuwait of a people who, through planning and dedication and hard work, turned the desert into a heaven. Saddam Hussein has stripped me of the past of my ancestors and of my own present. Please help restore the future of my children and grandchildren. A _ video tape was played in the Council Chamber, The following is a transcript of segments of the audio portion. VOICE (interpretation from Arabic): "This demonstration is proceeding close to an Iragi tank. Kuwaitis are angered and infuriated, and are shouting their slogans at the Iraqi troops, who stand by perplexed. The distance between the Kuwaiti demonstration and the Iraqi tank is less than 15 metres. ‘Angry Kuwaitis are waving the Kuwaiti flag and posters depicting the Emir of Kuwait and the Crown Prince. Shortly after the demonstration, shooting breaks out. "The next day, the man who videotaped the scene returned to the same place and saw the blood on the ground. This is the banner the demonstrators heid." ; WITNESS NO, 2: I worked in one of the main hospitais in Kuwait until a few days ago. Many families came to the hospital looking for their daughters who had been taken away by Iraqi soldiers.. They were checking every hospital to find if their daughters were alive or dead. Here are some of the many stories I can tell you of. During the first week after the invasion, some people brought a young girl to the hospital. Her neighbours had seen two Iraqi soldiers take her away from in front of her house. The next day, the neighbours found her in another house and brought her to the hospital. This girl was mentally ill, suffering from Down's syndrome, and had been raped many times. She was haemorrhaging; her lip was bruised and bleeding. All she did was cry, and she had no idea what had happened to her. I really cannot forget her face. Another day, at the hospital, we treated many nurses who had been raped by Iraqi soldiers in the night at the residence for foreign nurses where they lived. They never came back to the hospital to work, and left Kuwait right away. After that, all the workers in the hospital became very scared, because we were afraid the soldiers would attack us. There were always soldiers in the halls of the hospital, and one day an Iraqi soldier tried to make passes at me. I was very scared; when I told my husband he would not let me go back to work at. the hospital, and that is why we had to leave Kuwait. After we left Kuwait, I saw a relative of mine. I asked him why he had left Kuwait; he told me that he left Kuwait for the safety of his two young daughters. He told me the story of his neighbour, who had four daughters that had been taken away by Iraqi soldiers; after four days, only two of them had returned to the house. They told the whole story, and said how they had been taken to one of the police stations and been raped for those four days. They know nothing about what may have happened to their two sisters. A doctor I worked with told me about a young bride who was kidnapped by soldiers from her home when her husband and family were out. ‘The husband and the family searched everywhere for her for 15 days, until finally they found her, naked, her arms and legs tied to a bed. She had been raped by many soldiers for 15 days. One day, at the hospital, an od man and his wife came in looking for their daughter, who had been missing for nine days. I asked if they had a photograph to show me, because we received many dead bodies of young women who had been raped; when they showed me the photograph, I saw that the woman was a friend of mine from high school. She is a beautiful girl, 24 years old, and just married. Her husband was going crazy looking for her. When I left Kuwait, no one knew anything about her. I am so afraid she is hurt or maybe dead. Mr. President, please help my country. A_video tape was played in the Council Chamber. The following is a transcript of segments of the audio portion. VOICE {interpretation from Arabic): "They were leaving the Kuwaiti patients in the streets with their wounds and in their blood until they died. The bodies would be left in the street until they rotted. They prevented any car from taking the bodies to the hospital, to be put in the morgue or to be buried. When we walked on the streets we saw scattered bodies all over: dead people on the streets. The Iraqi soldiers used to come to the hospital; they stole the patients’ food and went into the nurses' rooms under the pretext that they were providing security, when in fact they raped the nurses." VOICE (interpretation from Arabic): "I saw an Iraqi soldier firing at me, and a bullet hit me in the temple." brought out of the hospital, and, unfortunately, most of them died. The deformed children, of course, vere also evacuated, and died. In short, medical care in Kuwait is deteriorating continuously.” WITNESS NO. 3: I am a surgeon and I worked in a hospital in Kuwait until three months after the invasion. As you saw in the previous video tape, there were many injured at the women's demonstration against the Iraqi occupation. Our ambulances worked until midnight taking the dead and injured women and children to the hospital. I personally witnessed the death of one lady and three children. I went into the operating room, where one 18-year-old woman was having her leg amputated. Another 17-year-old, unmarried woman suffered a severe injury to her face and ear. Her face is permanently paralysed, and she has lost her sense of balance because of a middle-ear injury. She will be handicapped for the rest of her life. One day a man was passing out bread in the street. A car drove up with two soldiers inside, and they shot him in the back of the head. He had, as you can see in the photograph I am holding, his jaw completely shattered; it was replaced with metal. The floor of the mouth, half of his tongue and the lip were destroyed, and he needs plastic surgery to repair his face. I would like to tell you about what has happened to our medical care in Kuwait Since the Iraqis came. Our hospital had 60 doctors, but when I left only 20 doctors remained. Surgery is now impossible at my hospital and others, because nurses and staff have left Kuwait. They were threatened by Iraqi soldiers. Only one operating room can be used in any hospital - and sometimes none. In Kuwait, we had enough medical supplies for 2 million people for one year. The Iragis have taken 95 per cent of those supplies. There are shortages in all our hospitals. The Iraqis have closed our specialized hospitais. They have discharged all cancer and psychiatric patients. Like our schools, which are aiso closed, these specialized hospitals are now used as housing for Iraqi soldiers. At the maternity hospital, a new mother must leave within two hours of giving birth. We do not have enough blood in the blood bank. If a woman who has had a Caesarian bleeds, usually she dies. Lack of blood is a problem for other surgery, too. Iraqi soldiers took our medical equipment. They took our CT scan, our X-ray machines, our lab equipment, the machines in our Intensive Care Unit. We had more than 200 ambulances; 135 of them have been stolen or damaged. The ambulance drivers have been shot at, taken to the police, questioned and tortured. Most of them have left Kuwait. On 2 September - one month after the invasion - at midnight, as part of a nation-wide demonstration against the Iraqis, our nurses went to the roof of the hospital and shouted “Allah Akbar” - "Allah the Greatest". Iraqi soldiers surrounded the hospital, interrogated the doctors, the pharmacists end the nurses. They took the head nurse and two other staff nurses to the police station and kept them there for 48 hours. Doctors work in fear when they treat injured Iraqi soldiers. I know of four doctors who were shot by soldiers when an Iragi officer died while having surgery. The Deputy Director of the Cancer Centre was taken away with two of his colleagues; they were shot when an Iraqi soldier ordered them to shut off the life support of an old woman and they refused. Medical doctors who treat members of the Kuwaiti resistance are murdered. One doctor was interrogated for treating a man suspected of being in the resistance. The soldiers surrounded the hospital and interrogated the staff for four hours. rt know four other doctors who were executed for treating resistance fighters. An officer - who was a friend of mine ~ returned to occupied Kuwait to enter the resistance. He was captured and tortured. They pulled out his eyes. Then they took him to his house and burned it down in front of him. Then they shot him. I saw many Kuwaitis who had been shot in the head or through the eyes and the ears by soldiers. When they were brought to the hospital, none of them had any identification. On the first day of the invasion, Kuwaiti soldiers defending our country killed many Iragi soidiers. The Iragis left their own dead in the streets. The bodies began to decay. We had to pick up the bodies, but the Iraqis would not let us bury them and we were forced to drive the bodies back to Iraq. By the second week, we had so many dead in our hospital that the morgue was filled. We had to bury many people in a single grave. The hardest thing was burying the babies. Under my supervision, 120 newborn babies were buried the second week of the invasion. I myself buried 40 newborn babies that had been taken from their incubators by soldiers. The head nurse of the Handicapped Centre told me that 45 epileptic children had died from choking because there were no more workers at the Centre. The Iragis (Witness No. 3} sent into the streets children under 18 years of age who had committed crimes. The severely mentally retarded were taken outside the Centre and left lying against the wall. Many Kuwaitis took them in, but we do not know what has happened to most of them. You will see them in the next video. The Handicapped Centre now is used for storage for Iraqi military purposes. As a doctor, I have witnessed many terrible things. But what has perhaps surprised me most has been the way the Iraqi soldiers treat their own people. One day Iraqi officers came to evacuate the wounded Iraqi soldiers that were in our hospital. They wanted to take an Iraqi soldier who had had surgery and was on life support. An officer was unable to transport the life support. He pointed to it and asked: "Will he live if this is disconnected?", I said: "I don't know". The officer pulled out the plug and said: "I'll see if he is alive after I walk around the hospital. If he is, we will take him with us". If they treat their own people in such a cruel manner, you can imagine how they are treating us. WITNESS NO. 4: I will put a question in front of all of you: Is atrocity only physical, or would you like to listen as I describe the new dimension, or the new meaning, which the Iraqi delinquents have given to "atrocity" and of which I am a victim personally? My life depends on a life-supporting device called "haemodialysis". On the day of the attack ~ it was a Thursday - the first question that came to my mind was: what will happen to my medical treatment, called "dialysis", and what will happen to my European wife and children? In the beginning the treatment meted out to us was 0.K. But they searched my home and my friends’ homes for my wife and children, whom I had been able to house, as it were, with an ambassador friend for that period of time. But the days and weeks went by and, while I was having my third treatment, the Iragis said: "Look, you are a healthy man, your blood has just been treated, you have to give blood." They took one unit of blood, and for a chronic~-renal~failure patient like me, to give one unit of blood is an extraordinary affair. This went on and on. As I did not have any work and did not have to go anywhere, I tried to become friendly with the Iraqis, both to understand them and also to use them when I needed them. By the end of the second week I could see the deterioration in the standard of the hospital's medical facilities because of the lack of doctors and nurses. And in my ward, which is the dialysis ward, there was also a lack of a machine, which is very extraordinary because a dialysis machine cannot be used on anyone except haemoor peritoneal dialysis patients. That gave me some warning of what was going to come. Slowly, the bedsheets began to be not clean; they were stained with blood. Then the pillows disappeared. Then slowly and steadily the gloves, syringes, and so forth, that were supposed to be used only once started to be used over and over again. Then the soldiers, who had been torturing me all the time - not physically but with various warnings about my European wife and children - started forcing me to clean the hospital bed before they would let me in. There were other reasons for that, because there were no more sweepers available since nobody would give them transport. There were also fewer nurses. So I did clean the bed. Finally, when I was thinking of getting out of Kuwait, they started to torture me in a different way. One morning, when I had gone in for my dialysis, there was a dead body on the bed - a stinking dead body. Of course, one can die. That is natural. But normally the body is removed to the morgue and thereafter the place is cleaned. Here, because the hospital morgue was completely full, I had to lie down next to a dead body and undergo my four hours of treatment. I explained all these things to this Iraqi friend of mine, who happens to be a colonel in the army, and I thought he would react as a human being does in a time of need. Actually he did, but I did not know what was at the back of his mind. And then he quoted a price. He said: "You give me this price and I will let you go up to Baghdad. Thereafter you are on your own", So I ha@ to pay him. But I had no money, because the banks were closed and one does not keep that amount of ; money with one. He came to my home and he took away carpets that I had been collecting for 20 years, my electronic equipment, our household goods, our food - everything. He took out roughly $25,000-worth of goods and promised that he would see me through. The only human aspect of this Iraqi was that he did see me through - but at that very cost. Once I arrived in Baghdad, I was very surprised to find that things we bought in Kuwait for, say, 100 fils or 60 fils were being sold for $3.50 or $4.00 - and they had all been manufactured in Kuwait. That is another aspect of all this. I know that Kuwait has to be freed - and Kuwait will be freed. But I would like to ask you to ensure that what we are saying here today is not regarded as mere story-telling. Just imagine that tomorrow morning you will be made to walk out of your home at gun point, to leave all your savings, not knowing what you are, who you are and what will be your future. That is what the atrocity of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait has done to mes after 20 years I am a refugee. WITNESS NO. 5: For the last eight years I have worked as a general surgeon in a government-run hospital in Kuwait. I would like to tell you briefly of my experiences from the time of the Iraqi invasion until I was able to secure passage out of Kuwait a few weeks later. At 4 o'clock in the morning of 2 August, I received a phone call from the hospital asking me to report for duty immediately. I was not told why. But since we had been on red alert for the past week, I was not surprised. I got into my car and began to drive the 25 kilometres to the hospital, which lay close to the Iraqi border. On my way, I passed numerous columns of armoured vehicles going in the opposite direction. As they bore no identifying marks, I could not tell whether they were Iraqi or Kuwaiti; later on, I learned that they were Iraqi vehicles bound for the capital. It was still dark out at that hour, and as I continued driving I could clearly see the flashes of artillery, the explosion of shells and the constant firing of automatic weapons. I was in the army before so I knew I was entering a war zone, but I continued driving. I worked round the clock at the hospital for the next four days. We all did. We received a large number of casualties -~ Iraqi soldiers, Kuwaiti soldiers and a few civilians. About a week to 10 days after the invasion, the Iraqis took over the administration of the hospital, emptying all the wards save one and discharging the patients. They took over the intensive care unit and the cardiac care unit and removed seven life-support systems out of a total of eight from the intensive care unit. Infants in our neonatal wards were discharged. I do not know what happened to those patients who were discharged so hastily, but as a doctor I know that without proper medical supervision they could not have survived. The cleared wards were turned into living quarters for the Iraqi army. The Iragi wounded were operated upon in our hospital and immediately transferred to hospitals in Basra and elsewhere. Although the Iraqis at our hospital as doctors numbered only about 10 to 12, plus a few technicians and assistants, their numbers were swelled by a large contingent of security personnel. These security men, dressed in civilian clothes, were actually the secret police, and we called them “the eyes and ears of Saddam Hussein". They kept a close watch at all times on the Iraqi professionals. We found this very suggestive; it was as if Iraqis could not be trusted to carry out their duties except under constant watch. The number of casualties coming into the hospital dropped after a while and we were able to return to normal schedule. However, we continued to receive wounded Iraqi soldiers, as many as a dozen at a time. Many of these Iragis had sustained injuries as a result of bombs being placed under their vehicles. We also continued to receive civilian casualties. As time wore on, they tended to be non-Kuwaiti workers who had remained behind after their Kuwaiti employers had fled. Some of these were women, some were elderly; all were suffering from gunshot wounds. I distinctly remember an elderly lady who had been shot in both ankles, and when I asked her how this happened she just shrugged her shoulders, thereby suggesting that Iraqis were simply taking pot-shots at anybody who was in their way, and this was corroborated by many others. I have personally treated civilians who had gunshot wounds in their abdomen and extremities and in the back. To a person, they refused to stay in the hospital a day longer than was necessary; their overriding concern was to escape from Kuwait, I have one other experience regarding the resistance that I would like to relate. One evening I was visiting an Indian friend of mine who lived in a neighbourhood largely populated by Kuwaitis. Well after the 7 p.m. curfew, this friend received a call from his Kuwaiti partner, who told him to turn on all the lights in the house precisely at 12 o'clock midnight. My friend did so. At that moment we heard shouting. Going out on to the terrace we saw the whole neighbourhood lit up and the people were shouting: "Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar”. We were really amazed that a demonstration such as this could be co-ordinated at such an early stage. On 20 August, after many other experiences I do not have time to relate, I left Kuwait with only what I could carry. Initially, there was sheer relief at having escaped. But with each passing day the tremendous psychological trauma deepens. The resultant scars could be crippling. Like many thousands of others, I left behind my home, my livelihood, my savings, my way of life. I have two children studying here in the United States. I am now uncertain how I will support them. Slides were projected in the Council Chamber. WITNESS NO. 63: It is difficult for me to tell of the horror that is being inflicted upon my country, but I will try. A typical day in Kuwait begins and ends with the suffocating fear of death. After a night without sleep, we rise to spend yet another day glancing from our windows, anticipating raids on our neighbourhoods. We £111 the hours clearing our homes of anything that might arouse the suspicion of the soldiers. We cannot even find peace in our mosques. Just three weeks ago, at my neighbourhood mosque, Iraqi secret police stopped our. Imam during Friday prayers. The police arrested him and installed an Iraqi Imam to continue the prayers, which they filmed for propaganda. We never saw him again. Iraqi secret police' dressed as Kuwaiti civilians are present at prayers at every mosque. The recent report by the Iraqi news service that the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew has been lifted gives the illusion that Kuwaitis are free to move about. But this is not true. No one dares to go outside. Communication has been reduced to rumours, because all telephone calls are monitored. Our homes have become prisons. Only our search for food is reason to risk the checkpoints posted in every street. What was once a short drive, now takes at least an hour, owing to as many as 10 checkpoints. The rules at these checkpoints are governed by the mood of the individual soldier. Anything can be reason for arrest. At each checkpoint we must submit to a thorough inspection of our cars and sometimes our bodies. But even a spotless car is no guarantee of safety. ‘Two of my friends were -arrested four weeks ago at a checkpoint when the Iraqi soldiers said they found bullets in the trunks of their cars. These bullets were planted by the soldiers. My friends have not been heard from since their arrests. In addition to the stranglehold of checkpoints, towns are systematically raided. This is the procedure. The nightmare begins two days prior to the raid: the soldiers encircle the town and all people are stopped as they come and go. When the raid begins, telephone lines are cut and no one is permitted to leave or enter. Then the soldiers strike. At first the Iragis came specifically for Kuwaiti policemen and military men. But now the Iragis arrest anyone who is found with cameras, binoculars, Kuwaiti currency, car telephones, photocopying machines, Kuwaiti flags or pictures of. the Emir. I know of a man who was arrested and kept for a month because he had a camera. I know of another man who was arrested because he had used his videocassette recorder to tape a speech by President Hosni Mubarak in which he criticized Saddam Hussein. The Iraqis have now targeted women because they are participating in the resistance. I know of three separate incidents where Kuwaiti women were taken to police stations and were repeatedly raped each night for at least two weeks. These women had not been released when I left Kuwait. The Iragis came to arrest our children. Five weeks ago in a raid on one town the Iraqis came with a list of boys between the ages of 13 and 20 years. Thirty-five young boys were arrested and tortured. Since that time I know only five of them have been released. During a midnight raid in Salwa three weeks ago, a friend of mine who is handicapped and must use crutches begged the soldiers to have mercy on the women as they were forced from their homes carrying their sleeping children on their shoulders. For this he was hit in the face and taken to a police station which used to be a private English school where he was tortured with electric wires for five days. While he was there he witnessed someone being doused with boiling water and watched two elderly men as they received brutal beatings. The Iraqis have entered every aspect of our society in their attempt to choke the life out of Kuwait. Schools, sports arenas, and government buildings have been stripped of all furniture and supplies. These buildings have become stations of terror. Where once was heard the laughter of playing children we now hear the screams of hideous torture. What was once the Salem Mubarak School for Boys is now a nunitions storage area; what was once the Riga Intermediate School for Girls is now the station for the Iraqi Popular Army; and what was once the high school for girls in the area is now the headquarters for the secret police. All schools are closed now. My fellow witnesses and I have only been able to give a glimpse of the crushing agony in Kuwait. While we have gathered in this chamber, in Kuwait the sun has set and another night of terror is about to begin. A typical day in Kuwait cegins and ends with the suffocating fear of death. suffering caused by the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. The costs of this tragedy are immeasurable: loss of life; the barbaric treatment of ordinary Kuwaiti citizens; the confiscation of private property and invaluable treasures belonging to the citizens of Kuwait and many foreigners formerly employed in Kuwait; the large number of families which have become refugees, either in whole or in part. Although we cannot quantify the impact of all this misery and human suffering, we can begin to put numbers beside some of the economic and financial losses which have occurred, both to Kuwaitis and te other countries in the Middle East and elsewhere in the developing world as a result of Iraq's aggression. This is what I would like to discuss with you today. Slides were projected in the Council Chamber. WITNESS NO. 7: Siide 1: Please recognize that data and information about the economic destruction are difficult to obtain and a survey would be needed for damage assessment. The numbers before you are best estimates based on professional or technical reports from Kuwaitis and non-Kuwaitis who have recently left the country. Kuwait's private sector was always well-stocked with inventories of food items, construction materials, spare parts, clothing and other durables, much of which was normally re-exported to neighbouring countries. To give you two examples, 15 planes belonging to Kuwait Airways were taken, as well as spare parts, communication equipment, computers and catering equipment, and the premises were emptied. The value of that one example alone is over $1 billion. Looting of the telecommunication systems and satellite connections have left Kuwaitis and others with no communication with their families in Kuwait. Slide 2: The Kuwaiti dinar assets of the banking system were mostly loans to businessmen, whose shops, warehouses, garages and factories were looted and destroyed, leaving them with nothing with which to pay back the banks. Depositors have seen their savings disappear, both because of the conversion into Iraqi dinars and because of a lack of access to a functioning bank or banking system. Most of those depositors were Arab or Asian workers, who have now lost their life savings. A banking system or economy cannot function if people do not pay for what they take, which is what the Iraqis have done and are continuing to do. Slide 3: The extent of the looting is unprecedented in modern history: shelters from bus-stops, park benches, school desks and blackboards. There has been a complete dismantling of factories and prefabricated houses, and so on. This has devastated the country's infrastructure, which has been built up over the last 40 years. The Museum of Islamic Antiquities (Dar al Athar al Islamia) had one of the finest collections of Islamic art in the world. It is irreplaceable and no value can be put on what were centuries of Islamic culture. In the 011 industry and in industrial areas convoys of trucks and cranes pulled up alongside factories one day and after a 15-day period nothing remained but real estate, just barren land. Slide 4: Almost 100 nationalities contributed to the building of Kuwait's institutions, its systems, management and assets, both in the Government and in theprivate sector. Today they have been reduced to nothing. Businesses which operated primarily in Kuwait have been hardest hit. Years of training and experience have been lost. Slide 5: The economic impact of the invasion of other countries consists primarily of two effects. The first relates to remittances, trade, tourism, fees and royalties of countries with strong economic linkages to Kuwait. ‘The second is (Witness No. 7) the oil effect resulting from a sustained increase in the price of 011, which is expected to draw down the foreign exchange reserves of some of the poorest countries in the world. Interest rate increases and inflation in industrial countries will as a result further increase the cost of borrowing and purchasing critical imports for development of the poorer countries. Slide 6: The figures before you of the 10 developing countries most immediately affected do not include other assets lost by nationals of those countries and of other countries, particularly Syria and Lebanon, for whom estimates are at present not available. As an example, for Egypt the incremental figures from Egyptian estimates are over $8 billion, not including assets for the period 1990/91. As an illustration, the largest items of impact are workers’ remittances, for which they have lost $2.8 billion; tourism, $1.6 billion; the Suez Canal, $0.5 billion; airline traffic, $0.3 billion; and resettlement and job creation, which is expected to cost them close on $2 billion. (Witness No. 7} For countries affected by oil, the oil effect, if prices continue at present levels, will be substantial. This is a real blow to many young and fragile democracies of Africa, Asia, Latin America and, particularly, Eastern Europe, which have adopted difficult economic adjustment programmes that have deep social and political ramifications. In conclusion, a Kuwaiti task force has recently been put together to draw up a recovery and reconstruction programme for implementation after liberation. The initial shopping list is expected to include everything from pencils, children's books, feods and medicines to gas turbines. Such has been the devastation to the Kuwaiti economy. Mr. ABULHASAN (Kuwait) (interpretation from Arabic): I trust that what the Council has just heard and seen from eyewitnesses and video recordings is . adequate and needs no further elaboration. It is our fervent hope that everything the Council has heard and seen will prompt it to take decisive action that will contribute to the maintenance of peace - a just peace - and to defend it without reservation, regardless of the sacrifices that must be made. The Iraqi goal in all these inhumane practices is to wipe out the Kuwaiti identity by changing the demographic composition of the country. That was obvious when the occupying army began confiscating all Kuwaiti identification documents, including citizenship certificates, passports and even driver licences and identity: cards. It was also demonstrated when the Iragis burned the archives of many ministries dealing with citizens' affairs, including some departments of the Ministry of the Interior. Acts of brutality and terrorism against Kuwaitis have also escalated, forcing them to leave their country, while very large numbers of Iraqis have been settled in Kuwait and have seized by force the homes and properties of its people. (Mr. Abulhasan, Kuwait) Those malicious goals of the invading Iraqi régime were evident to the steadfast, resisting Kuwaiti people, so some of them, prompted by loyalty and patriotism, managed to transfer out of the country the civil records of Kuwait's total population up to the first day of August, which were stored in special computers. They moved the computer disks to guarded locations inside Kuwait until they had the opportunity to sneak them safely out of the country. The purpose was to undermine the Iraqi régime's scheme to rupture the demographic fabric of Kuwait. It is my pleasure to report that we have those disks right here in New York, and we ask the Council to adopt the draft resolution now before it that would authorize the Secretary-General to keep them at the United Nations as the legal and official instrument to be relied on when Kuwait is liberated from the desecration of the invaders. The current conditions, which pose a stark menace to Kuwait’s citizenry and to residents of the State of Kuwait, call for protection of the civilian population in accordance with the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention, of 1949, and its Additional Protocol IE, of 1977, as well as the ensuring of their security, safety and their right to remain on their land; the inviolability of Kuwait's demographic composition; protection of the right of Kuwaiti nationals to Kuwaiti citizenship; and the illegality of changing that citizenship through physical and moral coercion, deeming any measure of the Iraqi occupation authority in this regard as invalid and legally ineffective, The Council is also requested to form a fact-finding commission and to dispatch it to the State of Kuwait to assess the state of affairs there, including the extent of destruction and sabotage of assets and properties, in order to prove the damage caused to ail utilities and properties belonging to the Government, individuals and companies, and to assess reparations for them. (Mr. Abulhasan, Kuwait) The Council is also required to protect the Kuwaiti captives and to ensure their humanitarian treatment in accordance with the First Geneva Convention and the Third Geneva Convention, of 1949, on protecting prisoners, to ensure the legal protection of all military and civilian Kuwaiti detainees, to safeguard their right to humanitarian treatment enshrined in international covenants and agreements, particularly as regards groups being used as human shields in strategic installations. I find it appropriate to point out that the President of the Iraqi régime is disguising itself in new attire to hide its evils, assuming an Islamic veneer and beginning to invoke in some of his statements and justifications, the principles and teachings of Islam in a propagandistic ploy that is contrary to the sanctity of that religion, against whose essence and spirit, not to mention its texts, the Iraqi régime works. Through you, Mr. President, let me ask the Iraqi leaders this: does not God the Almighty say in His Book, “If any one siew a person - unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land - it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people." Is it not the Prophet Mohamed - prayers and peace be upon him - who said, “The Muslim is the brother of Muslim, he does not betray him, lie to him or fail him. The Muslim is proscribed from violating the honour of other Muslims, their money or their blood." This is Islam and its attitude towards man, the most honourable of God's creatures, and that is what the Iraqi régime and its demons are doing against the Kuwaiti people. I would draw the attention of members of the Council to what the divine covenant revealed to humankind in the form of one of the most pertinent verses of the Holy Koran in this context: "If two parties among the believers fall into a quarrel, make ye peace between them: but if one of them transgresses beyond bounds against the other, then fight ye (All) against the one that transgresses until it complies with the command of God; but if it complies, then make peace between them with justice, and be fair: For God loves those who are fair (and just)." The United Nations Charter reflected the essence and spirit of this holy verse when it stated in Chapter I, Article 2, paragraph 3: "All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered." And in the same Article, paragraph 4: "All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations." And when peaceful endeavours fail, the Charter provides the remedy. When peaceful efforts fail, the Charter provides us with the answer, exactly like the holy verse. The Charter, in Articles 41 and 42 of Chapter VII, speaks about the remedy of such cases. The Iraqi régime has left us - and you - no option. It wants you to yield to its own terms, while you want to uphold justice and restore peace. It seeks to apply the law of the jungle, while you want the law of civilized human beings, as spelled out in the United Nations Charter, of which you are the custodians. My message to you is: Don't let aggression continue to stand. Don't let aggression reap any fruit or be rewarded. By that, you will not oniy resolve the problem of Kuwait but you will also be forging and building a wall that bars injustice, and bars the tyrant from climbing it in order to live among you, inject his venom and undermine the edifice of the international order whose sun has risen and whose glowing light will inevitably cover the entire globe.

In accordance with the understanding reached earlier in the meeting, I shall now adjourn the meeting. I invite members to join me in the sonsultation room following the adjournment of the meeting. The next meeting of che Security Council to continue consideration of the item on the agenda will be fixed in consultation with the members of the Council. The meeting rose at 1.15 p.m.