European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 20, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Remembering the missing in agony Side world. I a though Kuwait City is covered with Yel Low ribbons and pow Mia posters the mystery of the 625 kuwaitis missing since the end of the persian Gulf War has been largely overlooked by the Cut about 8,000 people were detained and trans ported to Iraq during the seven month occupation of Kuwait that began aug. 2,1990. Most were civilians. Nearly All were released. But 625 remain unaccounted for. Amnesty International concluded in september 1993 that there is Strong evidence that Many of the detainees Are still being held in iraqi jails. Witnesses claim to have seen some of them in the Baghdad area and Many kuwaiti families have handed Over Small fortunes to jordanian middlemen who Promise to find news of their loved one. But neither the Money nor the family members Are seen again. We walk in a deep Tunnel and find Only the smallest Light at the end but we will follow that Light said a kuwaiti named Faisal whose 20-year old brother is among the missing. We want the world to help us said Faisal who did t want to give his last name for fear his brother might suffer in iraqi custody. While International diplomats Haggle about iraqi troop movements and Border claims Faisal said the world is All but ignoring the More important and human Issue of the kuwaiti pos. Everybody is talking about kuwaiti sovereignty and Border demarcation but a lot less talk is about Kuwait prisoners said Ahmad y. Bayer Al Abdal la a member of Kuwait s parliament the 625 missing in action include 558 kuwaiti Citi Zens and 67 foreigners who had been living in Kuwait. Eight Are women 483 Are civilians. In such a Small country almost one in every thousand citizens is among the missing. V relatives repeated the horror stories in which Ahmad y. Bayer Al Abdalla a member of Kuwait s parliament Points to a fact Sheet on pos. Only the names changed iraqi soldiers surrounded a kuwaiti House often after dark broke in assaulted the Fani ily and arrested Able bodied men. Some women were also taken. Samira Marafi was arrested at a City checkpoint on her Way to do Volunteer work at a City Hospital. She had told her Mother she would Call Home by 5 . Her Mother called the Hospital at 5 30 and found put that Marafi had never arrived. In Kuwait everyone feels they Are alive Bayer said. Their greatest fear is that iraqi Leader Saddam Hussein will hold the hostages indefinitely waiting to use them As human bargaining chips during some future Power play. It was a tactic he used just before the persian Gulf War when he courted favor with Iran by releasing thousands of captives from the Iran Iraq War who had been secretly held for years. A human being can t live like this said Faisal. We Are thankful for this great liberation but our people Are still  Vince Crawley by Scott Kraft los Angeles times he slogan we will never forget you i seen everywhere in Kuwait on the windshields of cars on the door of the Kuwait airways ticket office and on the annual report of the Central Bank. At a medical conference last month it was plastered on a Booth Between those for paddlers of intravenous drips and computer programs for doctors. Kuwait s missing Are so emblazoned in Public consciousness that they Are muzzling a government that wants to open up its rhetorical guns on Saddam Hus Sein the iraqi president. Here you Are dealing with a very sensitive ques Tion said Sheik Salam Al Sabah a leading member of Kuwait s Royal family. He is in charge of the National committee for prisoners of War. You can t put too much pressure on Saddam because you Don t know How he will react. He deals brutally with his own  some foreign diplomats question the approach saying it raises expectations among families. Of course we Hope for a Happy ending said a Western Diplomat based in Kuwait. But after this length of time one can t be very  on the other hand Salam says the government has no Choice but to try to keep family morale High. Let me put it this Way i have no evidence they Are dead he said. I have to be  its really terrible for these families said or. Jasem Haj a a psychiatrist who has counselled almost 1,000 children suffering from postwar  psyche of these people is really traumatized because they Don t know what s going on. All their family decisions Are on hold. Their emotions Are exposed. They feel guilty for even wanting to be Happy. They Are angry at the United states for not killing Saddam. They Are angry at Saddam. They Are angry at  most family members carry photos of their missing loved ones. Amina Safoora had her son s picture put on buttons and his Sisters Ages 10 and 20, Wear them. Amina Safoora s husband captured with her so but released has had to take Early retirement from his Job in the government ministry of social affairs because of recurring illness caused she said by his detention and the unknown Fate of his son. In the months before the latest crisis a commis Sion formed by the International committee of the red Cross to locate missing detainees had made Progress with the iraqi government. Iraq had stopped Short of admitting it was holding any kuwaitis but acknowledged that 45 had at one time been in iraqi jails. That has Given All the families new Hope. They also recall that Hussein held soldiers taken prisoner in Iraq s 1980-88 War with Iran for years before admitting their presence and releasing them in a pow Exchange. Is Kon Georg Nural Bourell eyes her younger son Talal in an old photo in the basement of her Home in Kuwait. November 20,1994 sunday pages