Baghdad Exit Visas Could Take a Week

It could take at least a week to process exit visas for foreign women and children trapped by the invasion of Kuwait, diplomats said today, while the U.N. secretary general played down hopes for a swift solution to the Persian Gulf crisis.

Both the State Department and the British Foreign Office said they had no information regarding reports that planes will not be allowed to pick up Western women and children from Iraq unless they are carrying food and medicine for Iraq.

“We have not heard anything from the Iraqi authorities,” a British Foreign Office spokesman said.

In a sketchy report, the official Iraqi News Agency said that 237 foreign women and children requesting to leave Iraqi custody will be allowed to depart and that 28 others have decided to stay with their husbands and fathers.

There was no mention of the fate of the thousands of other foreign women and children trapped inside Kuwait and Iraq as a result of the Aug. 2 invasion, including 1,000 American women and children.

The release of the foreign women and children was promised by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Tuesday, but none of them have yet been allowed to leave. On Wednesday, Iraq said each will first be required to obtain an exit visa and asked foreign countries to submit lists of those who need the document.

Western journalists were for the first time allowed to speak with some of the foreigners in Iraqi custody.

Several people were close to tears as they were jostled by journalists but said they had not been ill-treated by the Iraqis. John Simpson of the British Broadcasting Corp. quoted one woman as saying the “only thing they couldn’t give us was freedom.”

Norwegian officials said it could take at least a week for Iraq to process exit visas for foreign women and children trapped by the invasion of Kuwait.

U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar met in Paris with French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas today before going on to Amman, Jordan, for a meeting Friday with the Iraqi foreign minister.

He said his mission is “to obtain the implementation of the (U.N.) resolutions.”

The resolutions call for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait, re-establishment of the deposed government and release of all foreigners held hostage. The U.N. Security Council also approved the use of force, if necessary, to enforce a U.N.-sanctioned embargo against Iraq.

“I do not want to give the impression that we have a solution at hand,” Perez de Cuellar told French television. He described his mission as “extremely difficult and delicate.”