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Iran releases 500 Iraqi prisoners amid glee and tears

AL-MUNDHARIYA, (Iraq): With tears and cheers, thousands of relatives welcomed home some 500 Iraqi prisoners of war whom Iran released on Sunday as a unilateral gesture to improve strained ties.

Soldiers on both sides of this border crossing point clapped and waved banners as the Iraqi prisoners, weary from years of captivity, walked with unsteady steps only to be hugged by relatives, some of whom had spent two nights in the desert waiting for the arrival of their beloved ones.

Salma Mahmoud threw her black veil away and broke into ululation when her eyes fell on her infirm, bald husband with a gray beard.

"That's Faiq. It is him. It is him," she shouted, pouring kisses on his cheeks, forehead and hands.

Faiq Asem was taken prisoner in the second year of the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran War, just a week after his honeymoon, most of which he spent at the front. After 18 years, a faithful Salma, no with a daughter, said they will try to start again.

It was both a happy and sad scene at al-Mundhariya crossing, 160 kilometers northeast of Baghdad. The repatriation gave a glimmer of hope to tens of thousands of families in Iraq and Iran that an end may eventually be in sight for the prisoner-of-war (POW) issue, one of the most intractable between the rival nations. But in the meantime it reminded the authorities on both sides that the wounds opened up by their brutal war have not been healed.

Iran's unilateral gesture is unlikely to bring the former foes any closer.

Only last week, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, in a Cabinet meeting, branded Iran's rulers "a clique of brutal monsters" for what he said were atrocities against Iraqi POWs.

"The means of oppression and torture they used are not even matched by those of the Nazis," Saddam said.

He has ordered that a novel recounting hardships in an Iranian prisoner camp be serialised in state-run newspapers, radio and television and included in the ruling Baath party's indoctrination programmes.

Iran denies accusations of mistreatment of POWs.

Iranian officers on Sunday carried crippled Iraqi prisoners and handed them over to Iraqi counterparts. Iranian soldiers helped the sick to stretchers and onto Iraqi ambulances.

Songs in praise of Saddam blared from loudspeakers on the Iraqi side and Iraqi soldiers brandished slogans of everlasting loyalty. The Iranians were mute.

Each Iraqi prisoner was given a small rug and a pair of shoes as a gift from Iran. Once in Iraq, each was given 300,000 dinars ($150), a gift from Saddam.

Iraqi officers who had seen previous repatriations said Sunday's reunions were especially touching sight as the returnees included many whom were reported missing in action.

Muntaha Shaaban almost fainted when she saw her husband, whom she was told had disappeared during the war. "In my heart I knew my Waleed was alive and here he's. He is a different man but I can still love him, love him," a tearful Muntaha said.

Iraq and Iran have so far repatriated nearly 100,000 POWs. Each side now rejects the other's figures on remaining POWs. The International Committee of the Red Cross, which arranged the latest repatriation, declined to discuss detailed figures.

Fahmi al-Qeisi, the head of Iraq's war victims committee, said his government had knowledge of about 13,000 more POWs still held by Iran and said that among the 2,000 Iran says it intends to release, only 13 were "known to us." He said Iraq holds no Iranian POWs on its soil.

Tehran says Iraq still holds 2,806 Iranian prisoners.ÑAP