Last of German, Belgian Envoys Leave Kuwait
Belgium and Germany announced Friday that they have pulled all their diplomats from Kuwait as Iraqi President Saddam Hussein starves out the last envoys from encircled missions in the conquered emirate.
The campaign is a key part of Hussein’s effort to turn Kuwait into the 19th province of Iraq.
In Bonn, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said the last diplomats in the German Embassy drove from Kuwait to Baghdad on Thursday. ZDF television, a German station, said the group included the ambassador and his wife, along with three embassy staff members.
The Foreign Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the embassy was vacated because of exhausted food supplies.
In their announcement in Brussels, Belgian officials said their remaining two diplomats also left for Baghdad on Thursday.
The Dutch, Italian and Polish embassies have also withdrawn the last of their diplomats from Kuwait city in the past week.
That leaves the Americans, British, Canadians and French as the only holdouts among Western missions. They are surrounded by Iraqi troops and, in most cases, water and electricity have been cut off since they were ordered closed on Aug. 24.
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