Iraq to Free Women, Children : Hussein’s Order Starts Wednesday

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein announced today that all women and children foreigners in Iraq are free to leave the country beginning Wednesday, the Iraqi News Agency said.

Hussein issued a decree “that all women and children who are foreigners in Iraq are allowed to move freely in Iraq or to travel whenever they want starting tomorrow, including the families Iraq is hosting,” the news agency said.

It was not immediately clear how many women and children are among the 500 American hostages in Iraq. There was no immediate reaction from the U.S. government.

It also was not known if the decree also applied to the 2,500 American hostages in Kuwait. Baghdad, whose troops overran Kuwait on Aug. 2, now considers its oil-rich neighbor part of Iraq.

The announcement followed a televised meeting Hussein held with a group of foreign families, in which he challenged President Bush and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to debate the Persian Gulf crisis with him on television “for the whole world to see.”

Also today, Baghdad moved to tighten its grip on Kuwait by declaring it a 19th province.

Iraqi newspapers published Hussein’s decree turning Kuwait into an Iraqi province. The newspapers did not say when he issued the decree, which created the province of Kuwait.

Kuwait “has become Iraq’s 19th province and there is no discussing this,” Iraqi Information Director Naji al-Hadithi told French radio in a telephone interview.

Iraq’s longstanding claim to Kuwait is based on the fact that during the Ottoman Empire, Kuwait was part of the Basra governate. The British split it up after World War I.

In Washington, the White House condemned Iraq for making Kuwait a province. “The reaction is quite obvious,” said spokesman Roman Popadiuk. “The annexation is null and void. The whole United Nations has spoken on it. And that’s it.”

Shipping sources said today that U.S. Navy warships enforcing the U.N. embargo against Iraq stopped two cargo ships and that crew members boarded one in the Gulf of Aqaba before allowing them to proceed to Jordan.

It was believed to be only the second time a ship was boarded and inspected by the U.S. Navy since the embargo began shortly after Iraq invaded Kuwait Aug. 2.

Hussein’s televised meeting with the Westerners was shown on state-run Iraqi TV and was his second televised meeting with hostages. The Iraqi president said he is “ready and prepared for direct talks with Mr. Bush and Mrs. Thatcher. . . . Let us have the debate between me and them on television for the whole world to see.”

State Department spokeswoman Tutwiler quickly dismissed Hussein’s offer to debate, saying: “It’s sick, and it doesn’t even deserve a response. Come on, there is nothing to debate.”

She also said Iraq threatened today to expel an unspecified number of U.S. diplomats from Baghdad in retaliation for Washington’s expulsion of 36 Iraqi diplomats.

“Our charge (d’affaires) in Baghdad was . . . told that the government of Iraq would take reciprocal action against our embassy in Baghdad in the wake of the actions we announced here yesterday,” Tutwiler said.