Kuwait to Lift Martial Law, End Tribunal

Kuwait will lift martial law today, ending four months of military rule and disbanding the controversial military tribunal that has been trying accused wartime collaborators, the minister of justice announced Tuesday.

The move is an important symbolic step forward for Kuwait, which has been under military control since a U.S.-led coalition drove Iraqi troops from the emirate Feb. 26.

But the end of martial law, which some Kuwaitis believe was hastened by international pressure, will have little immediate practical or political impact.

Kuwaitis have been free to travel, and no curfew has been imposed. Although the martial-law decree gave the military broad powers of search and arrest, the day-to-day functioning of the police and the army are expected to remain unchanged.

Many civil liberties, including freedom of speech and assembly, have been restricted since Kuwait’s emir dissolved Parliament and suspended the constitution in 1986.

Opposition leaders said Tuesday that the repeal of martial law is meaningless unless Kuwait returns to democratic rule.

“We don’t think it’s going to make any difference, because there are other laws just as restrictive to the rights of Kuwaiti citizens, such as freedom of the press, freedom of assembly (and) pamphleteering,” said Abdullah Naibairi, spokesman for the Kuwaiti Democratic Forum, one of seven opposition groups.

An influential banker agreed.

“They are violating the constitution to start with since 1986,” he said. “Unless they stick to the constitution, we are effectively under martial law.

“I think this came about as a result of the international pressure about the trials,” the banker added.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said, “The fact that the government of Kuwait feels conditions allow the end of martial law is a positive development.”

Justice Minister Ghazi Samar announced the lifting of martial law at midnight in an interview published Tuesday in the newspaper Sawt al Kuwait, which is published in London under government control.

“The period of martial law in Kuwait will end tomorrow and will not be extended for another month,” Samar was quoted as saying.

Justice Ministry officials said the decision could not be confirmed without a statement from the martial-law governor, Crown Prince Saad al Abdullah al Sabah, who was in London Tuesday.

The martial-law decree, extended last month for 30 days, was to have expired today, and Cabinet ministers were said to be evenly divided over whether to extend it for another 30 days. Samar did not explain the reasons for Tuesday’s decision.

However, officials and citizens express mounting concern over a rise in lawlessness in Kuwait. Crime and domestic disputes have turned bloody as Kuwaitis spurn government calls to turn over the huge number of weapons they stockpiled during the occupation or collected from the retreating Iraqis.

“Every day we are witnessing accidents and tragedies as a result of the possession of weapons and explosives by weak and hot-tempered souls,” an Interior Ministry official said in a newspaper interview published Monday. “The numbers in the death registers are increasing.”

The government has given residents until July 2 to surrender all weapons but has not indicated how it intends to enforce the decree once martial law is lifted.

The end of martial law will not affect the status of about 325 people, mostly Iraqis, Jordanians and Palestinians, who have been convicted of collaborating with the Iraqi occupation and related offenses. Twenty-nine of them have been sentenced to death under procedures that have drawn widespread criticism from human rights groups and Western governments.

They have no right to appeal, but their cases will be reviewed by a special three-member judicial commission, and the crown prince can alter the sentences. Those convicted may also call on the emir for mercy.

The cases of about 125 other defendants awaiting trial on collaboration charges will be transferred to the civilian and state security courts. The defendants there will have the right to appeal convictions, first to a court of appeal and then to Kuwait’s Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, ordinary Kuwaitis remain divided about the trials and the international criticism they have drawn.

Some feel that the government has squandered international good will by passing harsh sentences on minor collaborators while taking no action against the generals, ministers and ordinary soldiers who failed to defend Kuwait against the Iraqi invasion.

“The trials were a joke,” said the banker. “If they want to get the collaborators, then what about the 5,000 bedoun (stateless Arabs, many of whom served in the Kuwaiti army) who went to work for the Popular Army of Iraq? You don’t go after people who worked for a newspaper or were singing when you have people who joined the Iraqi army.”

But bitterness lingers among those who suffered under the Iraqis or whose relatives were killed.

“Most of the ones who did anything bad ran away a long time ago with the Iraqis,” said Araf Adwani, a 27-year-old avionics engineer who was arrested and beaten by the Iraqis. “Most of the ones who stayed here are innocent. . . . But I have mixed feelings, because a Palestinian put me in jail. He called the secret police to come arrest me.”

The Palestinian has left Kuwait. Adwani said Tuesday that he does not know what he would do if he found him.

“Revenge is sweeter when it’s carried out by your own hand,” he said.