(4 May 2000) Arabic/Eng/Nat

Iran has released another 480 prisoners captured during its eight-year war with Iraq.

Thursday's release was the second such gesture from Iran in less than a month.

It comes despite mounting tension over latest rocket attacks in Baghdad and Tehran which the countries blame on each other.

On March 8, Iran unilaterally set free almost 2-thousand Iraqi prisoners in what the Iranian authorities then described as a move to improve strained ties.

Still clad in their grey prison uniforms, the returning Iraqis received a hero's welcome.

One by one, they filed through the cheering crowd, hoping to find a familiar face.

Many were quickly reunited with loved ones - emotional reunions with relatives and friends they had not seen for 12 years or more.

Since Iran and Iraq ended hostilities under a U-N-brokered ceasefire in 1988, the countries have repatriated around 100-thousand prisoners.

This woman has come to many homecomings like this one, hoping to find her missing brother.

On Thursday, she got her wish.

The country these P-O-Ws are returning to is a shadow of its former self, stifled by years of sanctions and dictatorship.

But for most of the returnees, there was still no place like home.

SOUNDBITE: (Arabic)
"Home is the most precious thing in the world."
SUPER CAPTION: Ali Mohammad, Returning POW

Until recently, few, if any of these veterans were registered prisoners-of-war.

Many were thought to have perished in the brutal eight year war between Iran and Iraq that finally ended in 1988.

Red Cross officials responsible for registering the prisoners believe thousands more prisoners are still languishing in Iranian jails.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We always have to rely on the figures given by the authorities, so I think the figures given by the Iranian authorities are still two-hundred-eight...two-thousand eight-hundred, there we have to rely on, but more, we do not know of course."
SUPER CAPTION: Florent Cornaz, Spokesman, International Committee for the Red Cross

A group of the prisoners was taken by bus to the city of Jalawa on Thursday, where they will receive gifts from Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and make contact with their families.

The Red Cross says up to 9-thousand registered prisoners are still being held in Iranian jails, while thousands more remain unaccounted for.

Another 4-thousand-900 Iraqi prisoners have decided to stay in Iran by their own will.

Iran says Iraq still holds more than 2-thousand-800 of its prisoners.

The latest release of Iraqi prisoners comes despite mounting tension over latest rocket attacks in Baghdad and Tehran on Tuesday, which the countries blame on each other.

The Iraqi authorities blamed the clerical regime in Tehran for the Baghdad blast which injured eight people.

The Iraqi-based rebel group, Mujahedeen Khalq claimed responsibility for the Tehran attack that wounded six people.

Thursday's release of prisoners is being seen as a conciliatory gesture from Tehran which could help the two sides put aside their differences.

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