27 January 2003
Little Time Left to Disarm Iraq, U.S. Says
(Inspectors tell U.N. they need more Iraqi cooperation) (1540) By Judy Aita Washington File United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- After hearing from the chief U.N. weapons inspectors on their 60 days in Iraq, the United States said January 27 that the reports provide no evidence that Saddam Hussein is voluntarily ridding his nation of its biological and chemical weapons, nuclear capabilities and ballistic missiles. U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte warned Security Council members that "there is little time left for the council to face its responsibilities" in disarming Iraq. "Unfortunately, nothing we have heard today gives us hope that Iraq intends to fully comply with resolution 1441 or any of the 16 resolutions that preceded it over the last twelve years," Negroponte said. "The purpose of 1441 was disarmament. It was never the task of the inspectors to look under every rock to find Iraq's hidden weapons," he said. "Inspectors are a means to an end and they cannot be expected to achieve disarmament when a country has an active program of denial and deception, as in the case of Iraq." Hans Blix, the head of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), told the Security Council that significant questions remain on Iraqi's chemical, biological and ballistic weapons programs. Baghdad should be more forthcoming with information and allow greater access to scientists and other key personnel with knowledge of the country's weapons programs, he said. So far, Blix said, UNMOVIC feels that "Iraq has decided in principle" to cooperate on process, particularly in granting access to sites and providing support services for UNMOVIC, but has not made a similar decision on providing substance on its banned weapons programs. The 12,000-page final declaration submitted in December 2002 leaves many unanswered questions, he said. "The reports do not contend that weapons of mass destruction remain in Iraq, but nor do they exclude that possibility. They point to lack of evidence and inconsistencies which raise question marks, which must be straightened out, if weapons dossiers are to be closed and confidence is to arise." The discovery of 3,000 pages of documents relating to the laser enrichment of uranium in the private home of a scientist "support a concern that has long existed that documents might be distributed to the homes of private individuals," Blix said. "We cannot help but think that the case might not be isolated and that such placement of documents is deliberate to make discovery difficult and to seek to shield documents by placing them in private homes," the UNMOVIC chief said. Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said that his inspectors have found "no evidence that Iraq has revived its nuclear weapons program," but their work is continuing and "should be allowed to run its natural course." ElBaradei emphasized the need for Baghdad "to shift from passive support -- that is, responding as needed to inspectors' requests -- to proactive support -- that is, voluntarily assisting inspectors by providing documentation, people and other evidence that will assist in filling in the remaining gaps in our information." Iraq's December 2002 declaration to IAEA did not provide any new information or answer outstanding questions, especially related to weapons design and centrifuge development prior to 1991, he also said. The council heard reports from the chief U.N. weapons inspectors on the first 60 days of the United Nations' renewed disarmament work in Iraq. The reports were required under resolution 1441 which gave Iraq one last chance to rid itself of its weapons of mass destruction and their programs or face "serious consequences." The council asked for another report on February 14. In remarks to journalists as well as in the private discussions that followed the weapons inspectors reports Negroponte stressed the need for council members to face up to their responsibilities to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction and not return to the "failed strategy" of the past by trying to limit the damage Saddam Hussein could inflict instead of disarming Iraq. The ambassador said that Iraq has failed two tests: providing a currently accurate, full and complete declaration of all aspects of its weapons of mass destruction programs and delivery systems; and cooperating fully with the U.N. weapons inspectors. "The reality we must confront is that this declaration makes no real progress in disarming Iraq," he said. The U.S. ambassador said that "the unavoidable truth is that Iraq hopes that the council will accept a facade of cooperation instead of true disarmament." Negroponte pointed out that Iraq has given a declaration of its weapons program that does "not even address the most basic questions of concern dating back to 1999" -- undeclared chemical warheads have been found by the U.N. inspectors, and Baghdad has "an entire state apparatus ... whose sole purpose is to obstruct the inspections." Pointing to instances of voluntary disarmament in South Africa, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, Negroponte said that "the international community knows what voluntary disarmament looks like, and this, most emphatically, is not it." "In spite of the urgency introduced in resolution 1441, Iraq is back to business as usual. The danger is that the council may return to business as usual as well," he said. Addressing the issue of how much time Iraq should be given, Negroponte said that "resolution 687 which imposed disarmament obligations on Iraq was passed on April 3, 1991. So when one asks oneself how much time should be allowed for Iraq to come into full compliance with its disarmament obligations, one has to remember that this issue does have a long history dating back almost 13 years now." Other council members agreed that Iraq must provide proactive cooperation but differed on how long the council should wait. The council has scheduled private consultations for January 29 to continue discussions. Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere said that France wants more active cooperation from Iraq and also more time for the inspection process. "It could be several weeks, it could be several months as long as (resolution) 1441 mechanism is producing results," de la Sabliere said. British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock said that the issue is "not a matter of time ... but a matter of attitude. We need 'grade A' attitude from Iraq." Blix outlined several UNMOVIC concerns and called on Iraq to extend its newly announced search for undeclared chemical warheads, such as those found by UNMOVIC, to other weapons programs. Then, he said, any weapons found can be destroyed under UNMOVIC supervision. "Information provided by member states tells us about the movement and concealment of missiles and chemical weapons and mobile units for biological weapons production," Blix said. "We shall certainly follow up any credible leads given to us and report what we might find, as well as any denial of access." Blix said that Iraq has placed unacceptable conditions on UNMOVIC's use of a U-2 reconnaissance plane for aerial imagery and surveillance during inspections. He also reported disturbing protests and harassment of inspectors, which are "unlikely to occur ... without initiative or encouragement from authorities." Blix said that "for some time farfetched allegations have been made publicly that questions posed by inspectors were of intelligence character. While I might not defend every question that inspectors might have asked, Iraq knows that they do not serve intelligence purposes and Iraq should not say so." UNMOVIC has information that conflicts with Iraq's account of its production of the deadly nerve agent VX; Iraq's records fail to account for 6,500 chemical bombs Iraq had prior to 1990 and about 1,000 tons of chemical agent for them; and UNMOVIC has strong indications that Iraq produced more anthrax than it declared, Blix said. "There are indications that Iraq had worked on the problem of purity and stabilization (of VX) and that more had been achieved than has been declared," he said. "Indeed, even one of the documents provided by Iraq indicated that the purity of the agent, at least in laboratory production, was higher than declared. There are also indications that the agent was weaponized." "In addition, there are questions to be answered concerning the fate of the VX precursor chemicals, which Iraq states were lost during bombing in the Gulf War or were unilaterally destroyed by Iraq," Blix said. Inspectors have found a laboratory quantity of thiodiglycol, a mustard gas precursor, at another site, the UNMOVIC chief reported. ElBaradei said that, barring exceptional circumstances, IAEA should be able to provide credible assurance within the next few months that Iraq has no nuclear weapons program. He pointed out that IAEA's conclusion by December 1998, when inspection activities halted, was that the agency was "confident that we have not missed any significant component of Iraq's nuclear program." IAEA's work is now in the "investigate phase" to determine "what, if anything occurred" in the four years that the inspectors were not in the country. In the past two months "we have made good progress in our knowledge of Iraq's nuclear capabilities with a total of 139 inspections at some 106" industrial facilities, research centers and universities, ElBaradei said. (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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