IRAQ: IRAQ HANDS 10 ALLIED PRISONERS OF WAR TO THE RED CROSS

Record ID: 707668

  • Title: IRAQ: IRAQ HANDS 10 ALLIED PRISONERS OF WAR TO THE RED CROSS
  • Date: 4th March 1991
  • Summary: BAGHDAD, IRAQ (MARCH 4, 1991) BV PRISONERS ARRIVING IN BUS AT NOVOTEL SCU/BV PRISONERS LEAVING BUS AND BEING GREETED BY ANGELO GNAEDINGER SCU PRISONERS SEATED AT TABLE SV CAMERAMEN/FREED PRISONERS WALKING OUT OF HOTEL LV FREED PRISONERS GETTING INTO RED CROSS VEHICLES LV VEHICLES DRIVING AWAY
  • Embargoed: 19th March 1991 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVADOQB3QQ6Y78O295T83ZZUEMX9
  • Story Text: Iraq handed 10 allied prisoners of war to the Red Cross on Monday (March 4) in a goodwill gesture signalling acceptance of United Nations (UN) conditions for a Gulf war ceasefire.

    The 10, six from the United States (US), three Britons and an Italian, left Baghdad for Jordan where they were to be handed to the ambassadors of their respective embassies.

    Angelo Gnaedinger of the International Committee Red Cross said the prisoners had requested not to be questioned by the media and would make no statements about their capture while they remained in Iraq.

    US fighter pilot Jeffrey Norton Zaun, one of the captured airmen shown on Iraqi television during the first days of the war, was among the released Americans. The freed Italian was Tornado pilot Captain Maurizio Cocciolone. The ICRC released the following names for the other freed prisoners of war but declined to give their ranks: Robert Wetzel, Lawrence Randoph Slade, David Lockett, Melissa Anne Rathbun-Nealy and Thoral Eduard Griffith of the United States and Malcolm Graham MacGown, John Peters, and Ian Robert Pring of Britain.

    Gnaedinger said the Iraqi decision to free the group was a gesture of goodwill following Sunday's ceasefire talks between allied commander General Norman Schwarzkopf and Iraqi generals. The release of prisoners was a key allied demand at the ceasefire talks.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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