Iraqi-Iranian committee on war victims to meet in Baghdad on Monday

Coordinator of the Iraqi-Iranian committee for war victims Fahmi al-Qeisi on Wednesday said the committee will meet next Monday in Baghdad.

Al-Alaam, which is issued by the faculty of literature in Baghdad, quoted al-Qeisi as saying that an Iranian delegation led by Maj. Gen. Meir Faisal Zada will arrive in Baghdad to take part in the meeting which will be held by the joint committee for war victims on April 12. He added that the meeting will be dedicated "to taking necessary measures to receive remains of the Iraqis and to deliver the remains of the Iranians who were killed during the war between the two countries (1980-1988)."

Al-Qeisi added that Iraq intends to ask for the release of all Iraqi prisoners of war held in Iran. He continued that, "Iraq will ask the Iranian side to coordinate with the International Committee of the Red Cross for the release of all Iraqi prisoners in Iran, even those whose names were not mentioned in the lists of the Red Cross."

Iraq and Iran resumed their relations coolly in 1998. They exchanged visits of economic and political delegations, but they have not reached a settlement for the problem of war prisoners.

Baghdad asserts that it had released all the Iranian prisoners of war and keeps only 64 Iranians who took part in the acts of violence which took place in Iraq in March 1991 following the Gulf War.

On the other side of the matter, Iran maintains that there are some five thousand (5,000) Iranian soldiers who are still imprisoned in Iraq, while Baghdad says there are 20,000 Iraqis held in Iran.