KUWAIT CITY, 6 January 2004 — Kuwait has completed 178 major indictments against Saddam Hussein and his top aides for war crimes committed during Iraq’s 1990-1991 occupation of the country, the justice minister announced yesterday.

“We expect the indictments to reach 200. We have already completed 178 indictment files against Saddam and his aides. They will be presented to the Iraqi authorities,” Ahmad Baqer was quoted as saying by AFP.

Baqer said the indictments were prepared by a specialist committee formed 10 years ago and chaired by the public prosecutor.

The committee recently asked Baqer to establish contacts with the Iraqi war crimes tribunal which Iraq’s Governing Council decided to establish last month, the minister said.

Kuwait wants to know how the Iraqi tribunals will operate and how the indictments should be submitted.

Baqer also said the Kuwaiti Cabinet has agreed to a request submitted by the US-led coalition forces to train Iraqi judges in the country.

Saddam Hussein, whom the coalition captured on Dec. 13, ordered his army to invade Kuwait on Aug. 2, 1990, occupying it for seven months before being driven out by a US-led multinational coalition.

Kuwait charges Iraqi troops committed numerous war crimes during the invasion, including the killing of at least 1,000 civilians, detaining thousands of prisoners, perpetrating widescale torture and confiscating property.

Since the ouster of Saddam’s regime, Kuwait has identified the remains of 61 Kuwaitis and third party nationals found in mass graves in Iraq following their disappearance or being taken prisoner during the occupation.

More than 500, the majority of them Kuwaiti, are still unaccounted for.