Kuwait gets the first shift of its archive

Iraq yesterday delivered Kuwait the first group of almost 2 tons of Kuwaiti official documents which it had confiscated during its invasion of Kuwait 12 years ago.

A Kuwaiti official said "we have officially received 30 boxes of documents and will work Today ( Monday )."

A diplomat said "Kuwait's archive" was handed over to the UN which registered its details on a Computer system before it was given to Kuwait for revision and thereby accepting it.

Officials said that the first shipment of the documents delivered to the Kuwait belongs to the ministry of the interior.

The UN envoy to this issue, Richard Fouran who was also at the al-Abdali ( Iraqi- Kuwaiti ) border center made shuttle tours between the two states to complete the transport of the documents.

An Iraqi representative on Saturday handed the Kuwaiti side an index for the archive to be handed over. This was made during a meeting held between the two states delegation, attended by Fouran, and the representative for the Arab league Muhammad Fouad Serri.

Certain Kuwaiti officials underplayed the importance of Iraq's returning back the archive. The Kuwaiti daily al- Rai al-Am said in its Saturday issue quoting the Kuwaiti foreign minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad saying that the "documents are important but the war prisoners are more important.