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DATE=10/03/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=KUWAIT / ALERT (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-267400

BYLINE=DALE GAVLAK

DATELINE=CAIRO

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: A Kuwaiti security official says the country has placed its troops on maximum alert near its border with Iraq and has moved in elite troops as reinforcements. Kuwait says it trying to prevent entry of hundreds of so-called stateless Arabs who have gathered to demand their right to return to the Gulf state. Dale Gavlak reports from Cairo.

TEXT: Kuwait's Interior Ministry said it has sent special forces to the Metla area, some 80 kilometers from the border with Iraq to block stateless Arabs who may try to cross the border from southern Iraq.

A senior officer with a United Nations observation force patrolling the areas said more than 100 stateless Arabs - known as "Bedoun" in Arabic, meaning without papers - were gathered on the Iraqi side.

Colonel Dominique Mariotte of the Iraq-Kuwait Observers Mission - or UNIKOM - said that the situation so far has been quiet. But he added that UNIKOM was keeping a close watch on the borders. Colonel Mariotte said UNIKOM had not upgraded its state of readiness.

There are reports that organizers of the sit-in in Iraq said about 3 thousand stateless people and their relatives would remain for a week near the demilitarized zone.

Kuwait's acting premier and foreign minister, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, warned that the emirate would not permit any of the "Bedoun" entry. He accused Baghdad of orchestrating the protest saying that the people are in fact Iraqis and not stateless Arabs.

Sheik Sabah added that the people are free to carry out their sit-in as long as they remain on Iraqi territory. He said if the Iraqi government can not provide them with food, then Kuwait is ready to send humanitarian aid.

Kuwait has lodged protests with the Arab League and the United Nations over the massing of the people near the borders.

Kuwaiti officials and lawmakers argue that many Bedouns are citizens of neighboring countries such as Syria, Iraq and Iran but have hidden their original nationalities. They say other Bedouns supported Iraq during its 1990 occupation of Kuwait. But others still living in Kuwait are policemen and soldiers. (Signed)

NEB/DG/GE/KBK