ABU DHABI — Kuwait has decided to penalize thousands of stateless
citizens who collaborated with the former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein.
Officials said about 10,000 so-called Bedoons, or stateless citizens,
have been identified as collaborators of the Saddam regime during the Iraqi
occupation of Kuwait in 1990. They said these people and their families
would be banned from citizenship and denied same rights as those of Kuwaiti
citizens.
The Executive Committee for Illegal Resident Affairs said Bedoons
convicted of felonies would also be placed under security restrictions. The
panel did not elaborate.
Officials said authorities reviewed the files of the Bedoons, members of
Bedouin tribes who over the last 60 years wandered into Kuwait from
neighboring Iraq or Saudi Arabia. They said the prosecution of the stateless
citizens would come under harsher rules than that of Kuwaiti citizens.
Bedoons have also come under restrictions in obtaining driving licenses.
The Interior Ministry requires applicants to list their nationality for the
licenses.
"We are waiting for special instructions from the ministry about the new
shape of the license and their validity so that they can be issued for the
Bedoons," Assistant Interior Undersecretary Maj. Gen. Mohammed Al Sbaie
said.
Not all Bedoons have come under security restrictions. Officials said
thousands of other Bedoons who joined the Kuwaiti military would be
recommended for citizenship.
The Interior Ministry regulations have been questioned by parliament.
Musalem Al Barak, a member of parliament's Defense and Interior Committee,
called on the ministry to extend its review of the Bedoons.
Al Barak said he was opposed to penalizing an entire family of Bedoons
if one member was found to have collaborated with the Saddam regime.
Officials said the Interior Ministry was examining a proposal to demand
biometric information from the Kuwaiti relatives of Bedoons.
