VZCZCXRO7517
OO RUEHDE RUEHDH RUEHDIR
DE RUEHKU #1048 3071453
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 031453Z NOV 09
FM AMEMBASSY KUWAIT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 4146
INFO RUEHGB/AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD IMMEDIATE 1520
RUEHZM/GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY

UNCLAS KUWAIT 001048 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NEA/ARP, NEA/I, NEA/RA, OSD-DPMO FOR COL. D ELLIS, J. BASHAM 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PHUM MARR IZ SA KU
SUBJECT: ICRC-LED TEAM FINDS POSSIBLE IRAQI REMAINS FROM 
GULF WAR 
 
REF: KUWAIT 354 
 
¶1. An ICRC-led team that included representatives from the 
U.S., UK, and Iraqi Embassies in Kuwait, the GOK's Ministries 
of Interior and Justice, and the GOK's National Committee for 
Missing and POW Affairs (NCMPA), on November 3 discovered 
bones in a desert site outside of the capital that may be 
Iraqi remains from the 1990-1991 Gulf War.  The discovery 
comes as a result of an exhaustive ICRC-led (but U.S. 
Embassy-initiated) effort to locate Iraqi remains utilizing 
period British burial reports.  Material uncovered on 
November 3 appears to include human skeletal material and 
portions of Republican Guard uniforms; based on the British 
reports, the site may contain as many as seven sets of 
remains.   Kuwait's Interior Ministry plans to submit the 
remains for DNA testing.  Over the next week, the GOK is 
expected to continue further excavation on the site and at a 
nearby site identified as likely to contain five corpses. 
 
¶2. As noted reftel, the ICRC-led multilateral effort to 
locate the remains of Iraqi war dead inside Kuwait resulted 
from an Embassy initiative in March 2009 to locate possible 
burial sites of some 47 Iraqi soldiers killed in action in 
1991 and buried by British forces.  Post initiated and 
organized the initial survey and also provided staff from 
political, DAO, OMC-K and NCIS sections to assist in 
interpreting data and grid coordinates from 1991 British 
burial reports.  These efforts were reviewed during the 
March 31 Technical Subcommittee (TSC) meeting of the 
Tripartite Commission, held in Kuwait.  In the interim 
period, Embassy staff have participated in several ICRC-led 
multilateral efforts to locate and excavate possible burial 
sites.  The November 3 dig represents the first actual 
discovery of mortal remains. 
 
¶3.  Comment:  In the absence of identifying information 
on-site (or a DNA database of Iraqi missing which Post 
understands does not currently exist), it may prove difficult 
to determine the specific identity of those recovered. 
Nonetheless, both the GoK and ICRC hope that the effort being 
expended to find  -- and where possible, identify -- Iraqi 
missing will encourage further reciprocal efforts by the GOI. 
 End comment. 
 
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For more reporting from Embassy Kuwait, visit: 
visit Kuwait's Classified Website at: 
 
http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Kuwa it 
********************************************* ********* 
JONES