KUWAIT: Kuwait Radio has finally regained 27 boxes of its archival tapes from Iraq, the country’s Ministry of Information said. Kuwait’s radio archives were stolen by Saddam Hussein’s regime during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
The regained radio archives include a large group of original programs that were produced by Kuwait Radio, together with Kuwaiti and Arab original songs, Assistant Undersecretary of the Ministry of Information for Radio Yusof Mustafa told KUNA yesterday. The move, which came in line with relevant UN Security Council resolutions, took place during a meeting held at the Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs in presence of UN and Iraqi officials, he said.
Kuwait has regained, over four months, the archives of the Central Bank of Kuwait, Kuwait Al-Youm (official Gazette) and Al-Anbaa daily newspapers and Kuwait Radio from the Iraqi government, Mustafa added. The Kuwaiti official appreciated the Iraqi move as a positive step on the right direction. Hailing Kuwaiti-Iraqi relations, he said: “Kuwaiti-Iraqi ties are not only restricted to the political level as the relationship with the brothers in Iraq are firm and deep-rooted in both media and cultural domains.”
The meeting was attended by several Kuwaiti officials, including Chief of the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry’s International Organizations Department Jassem Al-Mubarki, as well as Iraqi Ambassador in Kuwait Mohammad Bahr Aloloom.
Al-Mubarki lauded the Iraqi move as a good step forward, hoping that the Iraqi government would send back soon the archives of the Amiri Diwan, HH the Crown Prince’s Diwan and Foreign Ministry. “It is a positive step which we hope to be followed by other positive steps,” he said. For his part, the Iraqi ambassador to Kuwait said a joint Iraqi-Kuwaiti panel had been already created for the purpose.
The panel has sent letters to all Iraqi agencies asking them to return all Kuwaiti properties, if there.
