Iraq accuses Kuwait of violating its territorial waters

The Iraqi News Agency has stated that a Kuwaiti patrol intercepted several Iraqi fishermen last month (February) near al-Amiq port inside the Iraqi territorial waters.

The agency added, "At least two incidents were reported on February near al-Amiq port under the pretext that the Iraqi fishermen are fishing inside the Kuwaiti territorial waters."

The agency asserted that the first incident took place on February 11 "when one Kuwaiti manned patrol intercepted an Iraqi fishing boat in the Iraqi territorial waters in an area near al-Amiq under the claim that this is a Kuwaiti area." It added that the second incident took place on February 14 when another Kuwaiti manned patrol intercepted an Iraqi fishing boat near al-Amiq port and confiscated the identity cards of its passengers.

The UN has drawn the land and naval borders between Iraq and Kuwait in 1993, and in 1994 Baghdad officially recognized these borders.

Meanwhile, the Kuwaiti minister of state for foreign affairs, Suleiman Majed al-Shahin, stressed that the "number of Iraqi prisoners in Kuwait is 49 who are serving prison sentences after they were judicially convicted of committing crimes."

The Kuwaiti news agency, KUNA, quoted al-Shahin as saying that the "International Committee of the Red Cross knows details about the imprisonment conditions of those Iraqis inside Kuwait." He added that those prisoners are permitted to send messages to their families in Iraq through the International Red Cross.

Iraq stressed that 1,037 of its citizens were missing or detained in Kuwait, but it denied that it detains Kuwaitis.

Kuwait estimates the number of its missing and of other nationalities at 600 persons during the Iraqi occupation from August 1990 until February 1991.

Iraq admits that it had taken with it prisoners after its withdrawal from Kuwait, but it stressed they were all missing following the riots that took place in the southern areas of Iraq in 1991.