KUWAIT: Kuwait is to test war sirens, distribute gas masks and practise emergency procedures as it braces a worried population for a possible chemical weapons attack by Iraq.
The government has gone out of its way in recent days to assure residents that, unlike in 1990 when Iraqi forces seized Kuwait in a few hours, it has taken adequate measures and can cope even with a worst-case scenario.
Iraq's 1990 invasion of oil-rich Kuwait prompted the 1991 Gulf War in which US-led forces smashed Iraq's army, liberated Kuwait and ushered in an era of tough UN sanctions on Baghdad.
However, MPs and citizens alike are doubtful of official statements seeking to calm a stock market hit by new war jitters and are astonished by warnings that Iraq could fire chemical arms at them.
"This is really amazing," former oil minister and activist lawyer Mr Ali al-Baghli commented in yesterday's Arab Times.
"I am now wondering if we are going to take them to task for terrifying us about the dangers of chemical weapons," he said of the government, which was blamed for dismissing as a "summer cloud" the crisis with Iraq before its 1990 invasion.
The acting Prime Minister, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, has tried to ease the concern after his chemical attack warning took the local bourse down almost six per cent this week, a decline of 16 per cent since the jitters hit the booming market in July.
Kuwait says it is not party to the latest standoff with Iraq over its alleged development of mass destruction weapons and that it has no information from the United States if or when a strike against Iraq could take place. It has told Washington it can use Kuwaiti facilities only if military action is sanctioned by a UN resolution.
Kuwait's cabinet has said it is importing two million gas masks for the entire population which is 65 per cent foreign. On Saturday, it will run television ads detailing steps to take in case of an emergency while nationwide emergency sirens will be tested next week.
Several Western embassies have already started updating lists of citizens in Kuwait and reviewing evacuation plans. The Interior Minister, Sheikh Mohammad Khaled al-Sabah, called this week for volunteers "seeking to show their love for this land" to step forward and stressed that in case of war, Iraqi refugees would not be allowed to enter Kuwait.
Fearing a flood of refugees, the sheikh said they would be kept on the Iraqi side of the border within a 10-km demilitarised zone and supplied with food and medicine.
According to the US embassy, over the next few weeksjoint Kuwaiti exercises with US, German and Czech chemical warfare units will take place. - (Reuters)