Iraqi families visit their relatives, detained in Kuwait, with Red Cross mediation:

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: A group of Iraqi families, relatives of whom are detained in Kuwait, have visited them on Tuesday, within the framework of family visits, organized by the International Red Cross, supported by Kuwaiti and Iraqi authorities, according to a Red Cross statement. The statement, issued by the Chairman of the Regional Commission of the Red Cross in Kuwait, Jerard Peterenieh, said that “the visits took place from a humanitarian position, being a necessary issue to reaffirm the safety of the detainees, to remind them that they are not forgotten, allow them see their parents, wives and children, and follow up the news about their homeland.” He said that those detainees and prisoners have been arrested and sentenced during the 2nd Gulf War – 1990-1991 – and are still detained in Kuwait‘s Central Prison. “Despite fact that this had been the third time the Red Cross arranged such visits, but it was the first visit, participated by families of the detainees,” the Red Cross official said, adding that “visits for prisoners, sentenced for long periods, whose families live abroad, is considered a strong incentive to ease up their psychological situation and remind them that they are still part of their families, especially their children.” He said that the Red Cross “had facilitated during the past few years the conveying of Red Cross and Red Crescent letters that carried good family news about the detainees and their families in Iraq, as well as organizing family visits, as the year 2010 had witnessed the exchange of 185 letters among detainees in Iraq, Kuwait and their families.” His statement also said that the International Committee of the Red Cross “had been visiting prisoners in Kuwait since March, 1991, whilst the visits of to Prisoners of War (POWs) in Iraq had begun since 1980, along with visits for persons detained for matters related to the armed conflict.” PT / SKH 382