Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=3/17/2003

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=KUWAIT / U-N FORCE (L-O)

NUMBER=2-300795

BYLINE=ALISHA RYU

DATELINE=NORTHERN KUWAIT

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The United Nations has withdrawn its observers stationed along Kuwait's border with Iraq, amid signs that a U-S led war could begin soon. Correspondent Alisha Ryu is in northern Kuwait and has details.

TEXT: The United Nations says it has withdrawn most of the 13-hundred people working for the U-N Iraq-Kuwait Observer Mission, known as UNIKOM. The 15-kilometer-wide demilitarized zone straddles the 240 kilometer-long border between the two countries, which U-S and British troops would have to cross in an invasion of Iraq.

A spokesman for UNIKOM says the U-N observers and workers traveled in a convoy to Kuwait City, where they could be ordered out of the country at any time. UNIKOM began moving non-essential personnel out of the demilitarized zone more than a week ago, as the threat of a U-S-led war in Iraq began mounting.

The U-S Army has reportedly moved hundreds of tanks and other heavy armored vehicles close to the border.

The U-N Security Council created the border force in 1991 to monitor the area after a U-S led military coalition drove the occupying Iraqi army out of Kuwait. UNIKOM has 195 military observers from the five permanent members of the Security Council -- the United States, China, Russia, France and Britain. It also has a military support staff made up of more than 770 Bangladeshis. (SIGNED)

NEB/AR/AWP/RAE/FC