Bush Upbeat on Moves Toward Peace, Cites Iraqi Cooperation

President Bush said Monday that Iraq has turned over information about the location of minefields in the Kuwaiti war zone, and he delivered a distinctly upbeat report that hailed the “progress in our journey from war to peace.”

One day after Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf met with Iraqi military officers to lay the groundwork for an official cease-fire, Bush and others in his Administration said the disengagement was proceeding at a good pace.

The Iraqis “were being cooperative in a way that was very hopeful,” White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said of Sunday’s meeting. Indeed, he said, the Iraqi behavior “gives us some reason for optimism that they’ll follow through all the way” in meeting the terms for a cease-fire laid out by Bush last week.

The President, meanwhile, said that he will not relax until all the U.S. prisoners of war are home, all those listed as missing in action have been accounted for “to the best of the ability of the Iraqi forces” and all Kuwaitis detained by Iraq are returned, “every single one of them.”

The President’s words were echoed by Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who told a conference of the Veterans of Foreign Wars: “I make this pledge: In this war, it won’t be over until we get a full and immediate accounting of all our POWs and MIAs.” Twenty years after the Vietnam War, about 2,400 American troops remain unaccounted for in Southeast Asia.

The Administration appeared to be proceeding gingerly--keeping an eye on struggles reportedly erupting in cities in southern Iraq as emboldened citizens appeared to rise up against the rule of President Saddam Hussein--and keeping up its guard despite the signs of progress.

“There is a general level of skepticism that’s been bred into us by seven months of promises that weren’t kept and statements that turned out not to be true,” Fitzwater said.

The information on the minefields in Kuwait and at sea was provided Sunday. A White House official said the Iraqi generals Schwarzkopf and Saudi Gen. Khalid ibn Sultan met at Safwan Airfield in the U.S.-occupied territory in southern Iraq provided the information necessary to locate where the deadly ordnance has been planted.

The United States, Bush said, “got immediate satisfaction on that question of the minefields. So that’s good. That shows some real signs of progress and cooperation.”

When he announced a halt to combat operations last Wednesday, Bush had said that Iraq’s providing such information was one of the initial steps needed to move toward a formal cease-fire.

With that information, Bush said Monday in a speech to representatives of veterans’ service organizations, “the rebuilding of Kuwait can begin safely.”

With the fighting over, Bush is embarking on a busy schedule of domestic and international events to focus attention on the next steps in the effort to bring a wider peace to the Middle East.

He is scheduled to deliver a speech Wednesday night to a joint session of Congress, outlining his goals for the region. And he will visit with Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in Ottawa on March 13 and with French President Francois Mitterrand on the Caribbean island of Martinique on March 14. He is also likely to meet somewhere in the Caribbean with British Prime Minister John Major.

In addition, Secretary of State James A. Baker III is embarking Thursday on a visit to the Middle East and the Soviet Union.

Fitzwater, meanwhile, said that the United States had not received any requests from those reported demonstrating in southern Iraq for the overthrow of Hussein.

He said the disturbance “represents a degree of opposition and public response to Saddam Hussein that we have not seen in the past. . . . This kind of public ferment, I should think, would be somewhat threatening to Saddam Hussein.”

The White House spokesman also said that Bush would be willing to let Kuwait and others in the region who joined the U.S.-led coalition against Iraq take a leading role in determining whether Iraqi military figures should face war crimes trials for their activities in Kuwait during the seven-month occupation.

A White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that “while we may have some claims (against the Iraqis), it pales in comparison with the claims the Kuwaitis and the Saudis might have.”

As six U.S. prisoners of war and four others from Britain and Italy were freed by the Iraqi government, Bush and his aides kept up the pressure for additional prisoner releases.

Meanwhile, Fitzwater acknowledged that “a number of Iraqis” among the more than 60,000 being held as allied prisoners have indicated they do not wish to return to Iraq. “We will try to find some way to accommodate their personal wishes,” he said, but added that no specific provisions for such captured Iraqi soldiers have been made.