UN mission at Kuwait border readies to pack up

‘‘Phase 3 is the state of heightened alert. It suggests that we may be moving to the next stage,’’ says Brigadier Upinder Klair, Chief of Staff, UNIKOM. Despite the Phase 3 alert, UNIKOM is still engaged in monitoring, observing and reporting violations of the DMZ. ‘‘We are still operational, but at the same time we are prepared for sudden evacuation,’’ says UNIKOM spokesman Daljeet S. Bagga.

According to Bagga, the US military began violating the DMZ on February 26 and these violations continue. ‘‘We have information that US Marines have been spotted in the DMZ in civilian vehicles,’’ says Major Galavics, an Austrian officer of UNIKOM.

In the clearest indication so far of the American combat preparedness, UNIKOM has officially confirmed that gaps are being made on the electric fence running all along the 200 km Iraq-Kuwait frontier. ‘‘Originally there were 19 gates on this electric fence, seven additional gates have come up in the past few days. We have information the Kuwait’s Interior Ministry has ordered 35 gates,’’ says Major Galavics.

But what would help the American troops is that over the past 12 years, UNIKOM has de-mined all routes and tracks within the DMZ. It will be through these routes the invading ground forces will launch their assault on Iraq. The DMZ runs along the 200 km land border. It stretches 10 km into Iraq and three km into Kuwait.

There are five major crossing points — Delta, Charlie, Bravo, Abdaly, HQ Crossing Point. The last mentioned leads straight to the Iraqi port town of Umm-Qasr. When American troops are ordered to march into Iraq, it is through these crossings that the bulk of the heavy armour will go through. The crossing at Abdaly is of strategic significance because it is on the road that leads to Basra and Baghdad. It will be along this road that the bulk of the US forces will go into Iraq.

US forces are expected to enter Iraq from all border crossings west of Abdaly because the areas on the east are generally coterminous with the Iraqi coastline which is just 58km.

On the Iraqi side of the DMZ there is no such hectic activity. ‘‘It is absolutely normal and there have been no violations,’’ says Brigadier Klair. ‘‘It’s very hard now to stop the American juggernaut,’’ says Wing Commander Mike Carins, senior media organiser, Royal Air Force. With deployments almost in place and the window of opportunity to launch an assault shrinking, it is now just a matter of days for the US-led war against Iraq to begin.