This photo appeared in the Bulletin, Number 19, 1990.

The text was:

"Vis escapes from Kuwait

For Dr M. (Vis) Viswanthan, the difficult thing emanating his from escape from escape from Kuwait is his concern for his friends held as hostages in the country.

He has not formally met some of this friend. After the Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait, he was not allowed to leave his ninth floor apartment and all he could do was ring his follow hostages.

Dr Viswanathan, civil engineering graduate of this University, worked at the Research Institute in Kuwait City for four months before Kuwait was taken over by Saddam Hussein's army.

Opening his seminar in the Engineering Science Building on October 26, Dr Viswanathan said the two million population of Kuwait had previously been formed from about 500,000 Kuwaitis and about 1,500,000 migrant workers -mainly Egyptians, Palestinians and Asians.

About 100,000 0f the Kuwaitis were extremely rich on account of the country rich oil deposits. They owned houses, car and expensive properties and many had servants. Other people living in Kuwait had comparatively few rights and did most of the menial work. In the first days of August - the hottest month in the Persian Gulf - Hussein's army invaded Kuwait City. He and members of his family saw tanks and troops in the city and witnessed some of the street fighting.

"When I ran a friend on the first floor of out block and he didn't answer, I went to his apartment and was surprised to be confronted by an Iraqi soldier who wanted food. He was fed and didn't harm us.

"There was a great deal of looting and, as discouragement; the bodies of the looters were hung in the streets".

Vis said Hussein's reaction to the prime Minster's (Mr Hawke's) announcement that Australia would send frigates to the Persian Gulf was a ban on the departure of Australians from Kuwait. Soldiers confiscated ID cards and were authorised to round-up practically every foreign national.

"We went to the shops and bought sufficient food for about six months", he said.

The migrant workers sent all their money home and, in a state of panic, were forced to leave Kuwait and try to make it back to their own countries. They were directed to a camp in the Jordan desert. Because of the heat and the lack of water and food, thousands died.

Dr Viswanathan said the Iraqi soldiers themselves were kind and helpful to his family and friends. However, they walked the streets of Kuwait City with their fingers on the triggers of their guns. If anyway was suspected, they were shot. "I saw a man shot because the soldiers thought that he has stolen a car".

After about a month, Suddam Hussein decided that the women and children who had been detained in Kuwait City could leave. Dr Viswanathan's wife and daughter departed a week later.

"To stay by yourself for four to five weeks is a very strange experience. I could read and talk. I could not read or talk to people on the telephone, but I couldn't leave the apartment block".

Dr Viswanathan, who is of Indian descent, was fortunate to be able to join a group of Indians who were permitted to travel in a bus across the border to the refugee came, and then on to Amman, the capital of Jordan.

From the Australian Embassy in Amman he telephoned his wife and daughter in Australia.

"I left many friends behind, some of whom are known to me only as voices on the telephone. They are still in Kuwait and I am worried about the next phase of the Gulf crisis and how they will be treated', he said.

(Because of having to leave his job, Dr Viswanathan is presently searching for a research position.)"

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