US embassy cable - 02KUWAIT5293

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KUWAIT 005293 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR D, NEA/FO, NEA/ARP, NEA/NGA, IO/UNP 
GENEVA FOR STONECIPHER 
LONDON FOR GOLDRICH 
PARIS FOR OFRIEL 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/09/2012 
TAGS: PREL, KPOW, IZ, KU, ICRC 
SUBJECT: (C) GULF WAR MISSING:  PREPARING FOR UPCOMING TPC 
MEETING 
 
REF: KUWAIT 5262 AND PREVIOUS 
 
Classified By: AMBASSADOR RICHARD H. JONES; REASON 1.5 (D) 
 
1.  (U) This is a corrected version of KUWAIT 5292, adding 
dropped text.  Please disregard KUWAIT 5292 in favor of this 
message. 
 
2.  Action Request:  see paragraph 8. 
 
3.  (C) SUMMARY:  ICRC seeks advance approval of draft 
Minutes of the upcoming TPC meeting (date still TBD).  We 
seek Department's concurrence with recommended wording, and 
guidance on pressing the Speicher case.  END SUMMARY. 
 
4.  (C)  Draft Minutes:  ICRC has circulated to the coalition 
allies (US, UK, France, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia) draft Minutes 
of the upcoming extraordinary meeting of the Tripartite 
Commission (TPC - see reftel).  Its intent is to ensure that 
there are no surprises in Geneva, by getting all parties to 
agree in advance on the outcome of the meeting, and by 
strictly limiting the agenda (for instance, prepared 
statements are not/not anticipated).  As soon as the allies 
agree, ICRC will share the draft with Iraq.  The draft text 
is as follows: 
 
BEGIN TEXT: 
 
DRAFT 
Minutes of the 24th Tripartite Commission Meeting 
Geneva, xy December 2002 
 
1.  The Tripartite Commission met on xy December 2002.  It 
was attended by all its members. 
 
2.  The Tripartite Commission agreed to extend the mandate of 
the Technical Sub-Committee until the next meeting of the 
Tripartite Commission. 
 
3.  The Tripartite Commission formally endorsed the following: 
 
To suspend the Technical Sub-Committee's quorum rule No 8 for 
a period of four (4) months as permitted by rule No 16 in 
order to allow meetings between Iraq and any other Tripartite 
Commission member to address cases previously discussed in 
the Tripartite Commission in the presence of a third 
Tripartite Commission member mutually agreed between Iraq and 
the other party. 
 
4.  The Tripartite Commission decided to hold its next 
meeting in Geneva on xy April, 2003. 
 
Republic of France               Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 
 
Republic of Iraq                 United Kingdom of Great 
Britain and Northern Ireland 
 
State of Kuwait                  United States of America 
 
END TEXT. 
 
5.  (C)  Kuwaiti Addition:  Kuwait wants to insert a fifth 
point stipulating that the countries that would meet under 
the new TSC dispensation would be Kuwait and Iraq, in the 
presence of Saudi Arabia.  Dr. Ibrahim al-Shaheen, Vice 
Chairman of the National Committee for Missing and POW 
Affairs (NCMPA), told the Ambassador December 9 that the GOK 
is concerned that not specifying an agreed formulation for 
the TSC during the TPC would throw the question into a round 
of time-consuming bilateral discussions which Iraq would no 
doubt seek to exploit for its benefit.  In addition, putting 
this in the TPC Minutes would make it doubly clear that the 
Iraq-Kuwait-Saudi meetings came under the TPC umbrella.  From 
our perspective, however, if not worded carefully, the 
Kuwaiti formulation might inadvertently preclude other 
possible compositions of the TSC, such as US and Iraq in the 
presence of Kuwait (or any other third TPC member acceptable 
to Iraq).  We have informed ICRC ad referendum that we can 
live with the fifth point provided it is worded as follows: 
"The initial meetings of the Technical Sub-Committee will be 
limited to Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia."  The key word 
there is "initial," which preserves our equities. 
 
6.  (C) Background and Comment:  The TPC, including its TSC, 
constitutes the internationally-recognized apolitical forum 
for direct discussion among the parties to the Gulf War of 
issues related to POWs and missing persons.  UNSCR 1284 
specifically called on Iraq to resume cooperation with the 
TPC.  Iraq has boycotted the Commission for the last four 
years, allegedly in protest at US and UK participation. 
However, recently it has tried to tempt both Kuwait and the 
US into addressing such issues bilaterally, i.e. outside the 
TPC framework.  Last spring, the Iraqis issued a patently 
cynical invitation to the USG to come to Baghdad to discuss 
the case of missing US Naval aviator Captain Michael Scott 
Speicher.  The USG did not take the bait.  Now, it appears 
that Iraq may be willing to re-engage - at least with some 
TPC members - within the TPC framework.  That was the intent 
of the proposed rule suspension.  Given Iraq's past 
pronouncements, all expectations are that it will agree only 
to meet with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, but the wording of the 
proposed rule suspension was intentionally designed to leave 
open the possibility of other TSC permutations, including a 
US-Iraq-third country meeting on the Speicher case.  At the 
upcoming extraordinary meeting of the TPC, the US delegation 
may want to propose such a session.  If so, it will need to 
be prepared for the unlikely event that Iraq might suddenly 
profess readiness to engage in-depth on Speicher on the spot. 
 
 
7.  (C) Dates: 
 
A. PolChief asked ICRC Regional Delegate Michel Meyer why, 
according to the draft Minutes, the TPC meeting set for March 
6-7 was being put off to April.  Meyer explained that April 
would allow a full four months to test the success of the 
rule suspension, but he took the points that: 
 
(i) it is not necessary for the TPC to wait the full four 
months before deciding whether to extend the rule suspension, 
and 
 
(ii) if the next TPC meeting is not until April, it should be 
earlier in the month, i.e. not quite four months from the 
date of the rule suspension, to keep the suspension from 
lapsing. 
 
B.  ICRC has still not proposed a specific date for the 
upcoming extraordinary meeting, but we expect it to be in the 
December 14-20 timeframe.  We will advise USMission Geneva 
immediately when we know the date, in order to secure hotel 
accommodations.  Regarding the spring 2003 TPC meeting, we 
recommend holding onto the reservations made for March 6-7; 
we will advise as soon as any new dates for that meeting are 
confirmed. 
 
8.  (C) ACTION REQUESTED:  Department, in consultation with 
OSD/DPMO, is requested to advise as soon as possible (a) 
whether the draft Minutes as per paragraphs 4 and 5 above are 
acceptable to the USG; (b) whether we should push in Geneva 
for a meeting with the Iraqis in the revised TSC context, and 
how hard (also, should we flag this now in our comments on 
the draft Minutes?); (c) if the Iraqis refuse to meet with 
us, whether we should object to the proposed rule change; (d) 
if the Iraqis are amenable and leave the choice to us, which 
if any country we would prefer as the third party.  We would 
be most grateful for an answer to (a) by our oob Tuesday 
December 10, as ICRC is keen to finalize the draft Minutes 
and present them to Iraq. 
JONES