Global Policy Forum

By Lachlan Carmichael

The United Nations was trying at the "highest level" Friday to determine who was responsible for seven wide gaps in the electric fence which marks Kuwait's border with Iraq, a UN spokesman said. Daljeet Bagga said the UN observers had spotted people they suspected were US troops in the areas in the demilitarised zone (DMZ) on the Kuwaiti side of the border before the holes were noticed.

He could not confirm whether they had been involved in the incidents, which amount to a violation of the DMZ. The mystery visitors, who had short haircuts, wore plainclothes and drove civilian cars and were at times accompanied by Kuwaiti border guards who are allowed in that area.

Bagga said he had no confirmation of a Kuwaiti newspaper report that the Kuwaiti authorities were to make a number of openings in the border fence to permit the easier passage of US-led forces into Iraq in the event of war. "We were not informed" about any decision by anyone to open the gaps, said Bagga, spokesman for the UN Iraq-Kuwait Observer Mission (UNIKOM) in Kuwait.

He said that a total of seven gaps, "big enough for any vehicle to pass through," were made at various points in the Kuwaiti part of the DMZ on the 217-kilometer (135-mile) border. Later he said the gaps were big enough for a large vehicle, including a tank.

Bagga said UN officials had informed UNIKOM headquarters in New York as well as the Kuwaiti authorities, but not spoken with the US and British forces who have massed in the emirate ready for a possible war. US military spokesmen in Kuwait referred all press queries to the Kuwaiti information ministry, which was unavailable for comment on Friday, the Muslim day of rest.

UN officials were also still awaiting an official response from the Kuwaiti authorities, Bagga said. "This will be handled at the highest level," he said. "Nobody is allowed to come into the DMZ. "We are still investigating. We have to know why this is being done and who is doing it." Bagga said the cuts had been noticed Wednesday, continued Thursday but "it has now stopped. We didn't see anything today."

A report in the Arab Times, an English-language daily in Kuwait, quoting unnamed sources, said Kuwait was to have started making a number of openings in the border fence from Thursday. It said the locations of the openings were specified by the Kuwaiti army in coordination with US forces deployed in the country.

Security sources who asked not to be named said it appeared the visitors were surveying the area to determine where the fence should be cut to allow a path for military vehicles. UNIKOM was set up to monitor the border in the wake of the 1991 Gulf War to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation, and to ensure no violations occur in the DMZ.

A sign explicitly bans US forces from entering the zone. It is guarded by an electrical fence, three-meter (10-foot) high sand berms, trenches and other barriers as well as patrolled by the United Nations.

On the Kuwaiti side, there are total of 20 border posts divided into four sectors, according to Kuwaiti officials. The border police guard against all infiltrators, particularly alcohol and drug smugglers, as well as those seeking safe haven and Iraqi intelligence agents, they said.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.