
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 14, 1991                   TAG: 9103140260
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

U.S. TELLS KUWAIT TO STOP VIOLENCE

Revenge attacks by Kuwaiti soldiers and resistance fighters against Palestinians and others have become "a big concern" as the United States pushes for restoration of order in newly liberated Kuwait, Bush administration officials said Wednesday.

A White House official said that the concerns, stemming from reports of beatings, torture and murder, were raised by Secretary of State James Baker when he met with the Kuwaiti emir in Saudi Arabia on Saturday. The official said that Sheik Jabbar al Ahmed al Sabah "assured us he would do his best to prevent people from taking reprisals on their own."

A human-rights organization has called on the administration to prevent such attacks, saying action to stop the abuse is part of the United States' responsibility as leader of the coalition that freed Kuwait.

The wave of violence, directed at Palestinians, Moroccans and other Arabs, based on suspicion of collaboration with the Iraqi occupiers, has begun to fulfill earlier administration fears that the Iraqi occupation would be replaced by a second wave of bloodshed and atrocities.

At least 100 Palestinians have disappeared in the two weeks since allied forces recovered Kuwait, and many others who have been arrested report that they were beaten and tortured by Kuwaiti military and police officers, Palestinian community leaders and human-rights workers said Wednesday.

The number of Palestinians detained at checkpoints exceeds 3,500, according to reports collected by the Palestine Liberation Organization office. U.S. and British officials investigating the reports said there is evidence that at least some of them are accurate.

"Some people in uniform may be doing it," a senior Western official said. "We continue to get a lot of reports. I think there's probably some credibility in some of them. There's too many of them not to be."

Kuwaiti government officials, determined to bring accused Palestinian collaborators to fair trials, have issued written orders and called in senior army officials and sternly warned them that any abuses must stop.

But officials in Kuwait City say they fear that the lack of telephones and other means of communication may have prevented the word from filtering down to army and police officers in the field.

The beatings and interrogations reflect the deep hatred that grew among Kuwaitis toward other Arabs given favorable treatment by Iraqi forces during the seven-month occupation. It also raises questions about what will become of the foreign residents who make up a large part of Kuwait's population.

"There are some pretty shocking stories that have been relayed, and these sorts of things, if they are true, would obviously be of great concern to us," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. He said, as did others, that the United States had been unable to confirm any of the reports, and that "senior Kuwaiti officials have assured us that actions of the type described in the news reports this morning are not the policy of their government."

by CNB