DATE=4/12/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=IRAN / IRAQ P-O-W (L)
NUMBER=2-261228
BYLINE=SCOTT BOBB
DATELINE=CAIRO
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Iran has sent home nearly two-thousand
prisoners from its war with Iraq in the 1980s. Iraq
says nine-thousand prisoners still remain. But V-O-A
Middle East Correspondent Scott Bobb reports the Red
Cross says all Iraqi prisoners in Iran who wish to
return home have been repatriated.
TEXT: The former prisoners crossed the border at
Munthriya, northeast of Baghdad, in four groups during
the past few days. The Iraqi News Agency says they
were greeted by family members and thousands of well
wishers who lined the road, throwing flowers and candy
at them.
Many of the former prisoners had spent 15 years or
more in Iran and were not immediately recognized by
their families.
Iran says it released the prisoners as a humanitarian
gesture. Iran says Iraq continues to hold five-
thousand Iranian prisoners of war, which Iraq denies.
Iraq says Iran is still holding nine-thousand Iraqis
as prisoners.
The Red Cross says nearly five-thousand Iraqi war
prisoners interviewed by its officials said they
wished to remain in Iran.
The Red Cross says nearly nine-thousand Iraqi
prisoners from the Iran-Iraq war have been returned
home since the process began two years ago. The
organization says three Iranian prisoners and nearly
400 detained civilians returned to Iran during this
period.
Both countries are still recovering from the Iran-Iraq
war, which lasted eight years and took an estimated
one-million lives. The war ended with a cease-fire in
1988, but the two countries did not sign a peace
treaty. (Signed)
NEB/SB/JWH/JP
12-Apr-2000 12:57 PM EDT (12-Apr-2000 1657 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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