EYE WITNESS TO INVASION OF KUWAIT ON 2ND AUGUST 1990. .

Seen in the above photos are different scenes of the Public Rally and Public Meeting Goans organised at Panjim, in Goa, India, on 12th November 1990, to protest over Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

Photo 1, seen Goans coming from distant places in special buses to participate in the Rally.Photo 2, seen Goans gathered at Azad Maidan Panjim, in Sit-In Protest.
Photo 3, seen Goans in the Public Rally on the streets of capital city of Goa, Panjim. Photo 4, Public Address about to begin.
Photo 5, seen High Ranking Kuwaiti Officer from the Interior Ministry of Kuwait, Col Jumma Al-Kholifi, kissing the Kuwaiti Flag before addressing the huge Goan gathering at Azad Maidan, Panjim. He also along with other Kuwaitis participated in the Public Rally.
Photo 6, seen A. Veronica Fernandes - initiator and Convenor of Goa-Kuwait Solidarity Center addressing the Public Meeting.

EYEWITNESS TO INVASION OF KUWAIT
PART - I.

(This is one of the chapters of my forthcoming book ‘GOA-KUWAIT SOLIDARITY CENTER”. Since 02.08.09 is the 19th anniversary of the invasion of Kuwait, I am publishing this chapter in goa-kranti for its readers to read. AVF.)

2nd of August 1990 will be remembered in the history of this planet as one of the worst days, as the day of betrayal because on this day the President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein betrayed Kuwait with a Judas Kiss. On this date Iraq a brotherly Islamic country betrayed another Islamic country Kuwait by invading it thru force against the sanctified principle of Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) which forbids the use of force to settle bilateral disputes between the member countries. Since Kuwait and Iraq are also the members of OIC, Iraq should not have breached the sanctified principle of OIC. On this date, 2nd of August 1990, Iraq a brotherly Arab country betrayed another Arab country Kuwait by invading it thru force thereby trampling under its feet the principle of Arab League which forbids the use of force by the member countries against the other member countries to settle the bilateral disputes. On this date, 2nd of August 1990, Iraq with its mighty military power against the principles of Non Aligned Movement and also of United Nations, annexed Kuwait and converted Kuwait into its 19th Province naming it as "Khadeema". The naming of Khadeema was done when Xavier Perez De Cuellar the then Secretary General of UN was on his way, on behalf of World Body of which Iraq too was a member, to Iraq to meet Saddam Hussein to request him to withdraw his troops from Iraq and leave Kuwait into the hands of its original leadership. But Saddam Hussein even after accepting De Cuellar’s visit to Baghdad and its purpose made mockery of De Cuellar and also of UN by converting Kuwait into its 19th province on 8th August 1990.

During his stop-over in one of the Gulf countries before landing in Baghdad, when De Cuellar heard Saddam’s decision of converting Kuwait into Iraq’s 19th province, a disillusioned De Cuellar remarked “two minuses make one plus in Algebra but not in the case of Saddam Hussein when he made two minuses, one by invading Kuwait and the other by converting it into 19th province”. Both these two negatives do not make one positive for Iraq. Hence, it was wrong on the part of Saddam Hussein to magnetise Kuwait to Iraq. This was the view point of De Cuellar. As a member of NAM and UNO too, Iraq should have avoided use of force to settle its dispute with Kuwait. But, no, Iraq under Saddam Hussein by using its mighty military power trampled under its feet the principles of all the organizations namely of OIC, AL, NAM & UNO and invaded Kuwait.

A week prior to 2nd August 1990, on observing minutely atmosphere all around Kuwait, some gloomy situation was noticed. Stories started pouring in that Iraq has massed its troops near its border with Kuwait. But the threat was not magnified, even on the eve of invasion the magnitude of the Iraqi threat of invasion was played down as if nothing was happening. Though inner circle of Kuwaitis was tense as per trickling of the news thru the domestic servants who had very good access to all the secret informations from their top Kuwaiti bosses yet expatriates in general were unperturbed because they were not well informed of the real gravity of the events going on. Everything looked normal for an ordinary expatriate, at least expatriates were made to feel the same. My Goan friend Alfred D’Cruz ex Times of India, Bombay, working as Desk Editor for one of the local English Dailies, The Kuwait Times, said as usual he was working on his pages to complete the 2nd August issue. He was alerted only at about 11.00 p.m., when Kuwait Times office received a call from outside Kuwait from a media agency asking everything is o.k., in Kuwait? This made D’Cruz a little tense but as usual, after finishing his page he returned home late at night. While returning home, he noticed less flow of traffic on the roads.

Linda Martins, a young and pretty looking daughter of Alex Martins one of the senior Kuwait Goans, a well known Fine Artist, a renowned actor, director, producer and playwright who had unique distinction of producing from Kuwait the first Konkani Video Film “Guirestkai”, was traveling to Bombay by late night Kuwait Airways Flight on 1st August 1990 at about 11.00 p.m. When she went to the Airport, she found everything tense, the crowd thinned, the staff at the counter were making hurry for the passengers to finish their procedure fast and get inside, so too the Police Officers at the Emigration Counters. Linda did not sense the happenings outside but at the Airport the security officers and other police personnel gauged the situation. For this reason they were making hurry to allow the flight to take off without delay before anything untoward can happen to prevent the flight to take off.

On the eve of the invasion during the meeting between Iraq and Kuwait organized by Saudi King in Saudi Arabia to cement their differences on the prevailing situation between Iraq and Kuwait, nothing serious was disclosed to the residents in Kuwait though the said meeting ended in sour tone when Iraq delegation furiously walked out of the talks there. The Iraqi delegation for this meet was headed by Iraqi Deputy Premier Tareq Aziz who was the only Christian in Saddam Hussein’s Cabinet and was very close to his boss. I on my part thought nothing would happen for Kuwait. I myself thought that Iraq would never enter into Kuwait and for that matter why should Iraq invade Kuwait when Iraq is a brotherly country in race and religion? And moreover, Iraq has already recognized Kuwait as an independent State by establishing diplomatic ties with Kuwait even having opened its Embassy in Kuwait at a place called Shara Istiklal. Even though Iraq had created a very bad history in late fifties under its the then leader Abdul Kareem Qasim to invade Kuwait but all its sinister attempts were firmly thwarted by Kuwait with the help of British troops from Bahrain which came to the rescue of Kuwait then.

To be concluded.

A. Veronica Fernandes,

Kuwait.