Tracking Number: 218167
Title: "Gulf Crisis: One Year Anniversary Chronology." A rundown of important events that have occurred in the year since the liberation of Kuwait from Iraqi occupation. (920304)
Translated Title: M Schifter condamne l`Irak et Cuba. (920304)
Date: 19920304
Text:
GULF CRISIS: ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY CHRONOLOGY (7000)
Following is a chronology of the important events which have occurred in the year since the liberation of Kuwait on February 27, 1991.
February 27, 1991: -- Kuwaiti armed forces, with Saudi, Egyptian, Qatari, United Arab Emirate, Omani and Syrian troops, enter Kuwait city. Coalition troops hoist their countries' flags over their embassies in the Kuwaiti capital.
-- President Bush announces that the Gulf coalition forces will suspend their assault at 0500 GMT February 28 to give Iraq an opportunity to work out a formal cease-fire.
-- Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, Abdel Amir Al-Anbari, delivers a letter to the U.N. Security Council from Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz announcing that Iraq's withdrawal from Kuwait is complete, that Iraq accepts all U.N. Security Council resolutions on Iraq unconditionally, and that it will return prisoners of war to their home countries. The Aziz letter requests a cease-fire.
February 28, 1991: -- Saddam Hussein orders his troops to cease firing. Iraq agrees to begin discussions on how to arrange a permanent cease-fire.
March 1, 1991: -- U.S. Ambassador Edward Gnehm and 20 members of the U.S. Embassy staff arrive in Kuwait, raise the American flag, reopen the U.S. Embassy, which was evacuated December 14, 1990.
March 2, 1991: -- The U.N. Security Council adopts Resolution 686 laying down the framework for a permanent cease-fire. The Council's 13th resolution on Kuwait also maintains the economic and military embargo against Iraq indefinitely. The vote is 11-to 1 (Cuba), with China, Yemen and India abstaining.
March 3, 1991: -- General Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of Operation Desert Storm, and Joint Forces Commander Gen. Prince Khalid bin Sultan meet seven Iraqi military officials, led by Deputy Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Sultan Hasheem Ahmad, at Safwan Airfield in occupied Iraq. After a two-hour meeting, the Iraqi military formally accepts all demands for a permanent cease-fire.
March 6, 1991: -- President Bush addresses a joint session of Congress: "I can report to the nation; aggression is defeated. The war is over." Bush calls for shared security arrangements in the region and outlines the U.S. effort to "build an enduring peace" in the Middle East.
-- Foreign ministers of eight Gulf Cooperation Council states, Egypt and Syria meet in Damascus and issue the "Damascus Declaration," calling for improved regional security and economic cooperation among Arab states in the Gulf region and proposing to send additional Egyptian and Syrian troops to the Gulf to form the core of an Arab peacekeeping force.
-- The European Community (EC) announces it will send $4.5 million for emergency relief to Kuwait and to Iraq, with approval of the U.N. sanctions committee.
-- Germany announces it will send five minesweeping vessels and two supply ships to the Gulf to clear the area of mines.
March 8, 1991: -- The 43-nation U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva adopts two resolutions condemning Iraq for grave violations of human rights against the Kuwaiti people during its seven-month occupation. Both resolutions call for special rapporteurs to catalog and report violations back to the Commission.
March 9, 1991: -- U.S. government officials warn Iraqi president Saddam Hussein that the U.S. will launch air strikes against any unit using chemical weapons in efforts to put down civil strife. Iraq denies U.S. intelligence reports that it planned to use chemical weapons.
-- After two weeks of nonstop minesweeping operations, the Kuwait City port is deemed safe enough to reopen.
March 11, 1991: -- The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) send 89 tons of medical and other emergency supplies to Baghdad.
March 12, 1991: -- A 20-member U.N. assessment mission arrives in Baghdad with 20 metric tons of emergency medical supplies authorized by the U.N. sanctions committee.
March 14, 1991: -- The Emir of Kuwait returns from exile. March 17, 1991: -- The EC announces $6.5 million in relief to civilian victims of the war in addition to its earlier donations of $650,000 and $4.3 million to Iraq for water purification projects.
March 19, 1991: -- The U.S. House of Representatives adopts a resolution calling for Saddam Hussein and Iraq "to be held legally, morally, and financially accountable for all the costs resulting from the discharge of oil" in the Persian Gulf.
-- Coalition forces of Canada, Kuwait, France, Saudi Arabia, Britain and the U.S. have cleared nearly 600,000 Iraqi explosives on the ground in Kuwait since early March, Col. Marc Le Mans, commander of the French force reports.
March 21, 1991: -- Kurdish groups accuse Iraqi president Hussein of using crop-spraying planes to spray sulphuric acid on demonstrators celebrating the "liberation" of Kurdistan.
-- The U.S. Congress approves $200 million in supplementary aid to offset Turkey's economic losses during the war.
March 22, 1991: -- The U.N. sanctions committee eases restrictions on humanitarian food supplies to Iraqi civilians, but does not lift wide-ranging mandatory sanctions imposed last August.
March 26, 1991: -- U.S. workers in Kuwait plug the first oil well of the 800 estimated by Kuwaiti officials to have been set ablaze or otherwise damaged by the Iraqis during their occupation.
April 1, 1991: -- Following meetings in Cairo, Egyptian President Mubarak and Syrian President Asad issue a statement opposing the fragmentation of Iraq and calling for an international peace conference on the Middle East.
April 3, 1991: -- The U.N. Security Council adopts Resolution 687, which affirms 13 previous resolutions on the Gulf conflict and creates conditions for a formal cease-fire in the region. It creates a force to monitor the legal border between Iraq and Kuwait and provides a U.N. guarantee of the border, establishes a fund to compensate Kuwait and other claimants for the damage caused by Iraq's aggression, and includes provisions designed to ensure that Iraq cannot rebuild its military strength to threaten the peace of the region. The resolution requires Iraq to agree to the destruction or removal of all chemical, biological weapons and all ballistic missiles with a range of greater than 150 km. and to identify their locations within 15 days. The vote is 12 to 1 ( Cuba) with Yemen and Ecuador abstaining.
April 5, 1991: -- The U.N. Security Council adopts Resolution 688 demanding that Iraq immediately end the repression of the Iraqi civilian population, including Kurds, and allow access to those needing assistance by international humanitarian organizations. It requests U.N. Secretary General to pursue humanitarian actions to address needs of refugees and displaced Iraqis, and appeals to member states to contribute to relief efforts. The vote is 10-3 (Cuba, Yemen, Zimbabwe), with two abstentions (China and India).
-- Canada announces it will contribute $2.8 million to relief agencies aiding Kurds in northern Iraq.
April 6, 1991: -- Iraq accepts the U.N. terms for a formal cease-fire. -- The International Red Cross sends 35 tons of relief aid to Iran for Iraqi refugees.
April 7, 1991: -- U.S. Air Force cargo planes parachute 36 tons of relief aid to Iran for Iraqi refugees.
-- Israeli foreign minister David Levy announces plans to provide humanitarian aid for Iraqi Kurds.
April 9, 1991: -- The U.N. Security Council adopts Resolution 689 approving plans for the deployment of a United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observer Mission to monitor a permanent cease-fire as specified in Resolution 687. The vote is unanimous (15-0).
-- Bulgaria, Japan, Jordan, and Luxembourg send aid to refugees along Iraq's borders with Turkey and Iran.
April 11, 1991: -- The U.N. Security Council announces that a formal cease-fire has been established, ending the Gulf war.
-- President Bush, meeting in Washington with Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jacques Santer, president of the European Council, and Jacques Delors, president of the European Commission announces that Europe and the United States "have an enormous cooperative new refugee program under way" to aid Kurdish refugees.
April 13, 1991: -- German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher calls for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to be tried by the United Nations for war crimes before an international court, as the leading Nazis were tried in Nuremberg for war crimes during World War II.
April 15, 1991: -- European Community (EC) members join in calls to try Iraqi president Hussein for war crimes and for genocide against the Kurds.
April 16, 1991: -- U.S. President Bush announces expanded plans for a U.S. relief effort in northern Iraq, including the establishment of a "safe haven" for Kurds. U.S. Special Forces units move into the region to begin looking for sites for Western-run refugee camps.
April 17, 1991: -- The United Nations organizes UNIKOM, a peacekeeping force to monitor the demilitarized zone between Iraq and Kuwait which includes 1,440 armed and unarmed military personnel from 36 countries.
-- Iraq announces that it has agreed to allow the U.N. to establish "humanitarian centers" in northern Iraq for the care of displaced persons.
-- The Voice of Iraq reports that Iraqi ambassadors to Australia, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the United States have resigned their positions. -- The German government approves a $150 million increase in aid for Kurdish refugees in northern Iraq, bringing the total German humanitarian aid to the refugees to $266 million.
-- The Sudan People's Liberation Army (SLPA) radio reports that during April 13 meetings in Khartoum between Iraqi Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and the Sudanese head of state, Umar Hassan al-Bashir, Iraq offered to transfer chemical weapons, Scud missiles, and other long-range artillery to Sudan and other Middle Eastern countries that supported Iraq during its occupation of Kuwait.
April 18, 1991: -- Iraq submits a letter to the U.N. disclosing information on chemical and biological weapons in its possession and their locations, as required by U.N. Resolution 687. In a second letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Iraqi government says it has not developed any nuclear weapons.
-- U. N. and Iraqi officials in Baghdad sign a 21-point memorandum of understanding that will enable U.N. and non-governmental organizations, including the Red Cross and the Red Crescent societies, to help the Kurds and other Iraqi refugee groups in Iraq through Dec. 31, 1991.
April 19, 1991: -- U.S. Marines begin building the first Iraqi refugee camp in the safe-haven zone in northern Iraq.
April 23, 1991: -- Iraq calls on the U.N. to take over the administration of refugee camps under construction by U.S. Marines in northern Iraq.
-- German chancellor Helmut Kohl announces plans to send troops to the Iran-Iraq border to begin building a refugee camp for Kurds stranded there.
-- A White House spokesman says Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada, Germany, Italy and New Zealand have also joined the international effort to aid Iraqi refugees.
-- The U.S. announces plans to send U.S. relief aid to Iraqi refugees in Iran.
April 24, 1991: -- In ceremonies marking the beginning of the deployment of UNIKOM, U.S. troops hand over a post in the demilitarized zone of southern Iraq to U.N. observers.
-- The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Thomas R. Pickering, informs Iraq's permanent U.N. representative that Iraq must withdraw its military forces and police from the safe haven in northern Iraq, and that, if necessary, the United States is prepared to use force to secure the area.
-- Iraq agrees to withdraw all but 50 of its policemen from Zakhu, as well as several hundred Iraqi soldiers who have been stationed in the northern region in cooperation with the international humanitarian relief program.
-- Three hundred British marines arrive in Zakhu to help U.S. marines patrol the controlled zone.
-- Saudi Arabia agrees to accept and shelter some 15,000 Iraqi refugees previously under Saudi and U.S. protection in southern Iraq.
-- Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu announces that Japan will send six minesweepers to help clear Iraqi mines from Gulf waters.
April 26, 1991: -- U.N. secretary general Javier Perez de Cuellar announces that the U.N. will take control of the U.S.-built refugee camp near Zakhu.
-- Iraq announces it will grant amnesty to all Kurds, inside and outside Iraq, for all crimes punishable by law except premeditated murder and rape.
April 28, 1991: -- U.S. military C-130 transports fly the first group of Iraqi refugees, all Iraqi citizens, from the Safwan area in southern Iraq to a refugee camp in Rafha, Saudi Arabia, where they are given temporary asylum.
April 30, 1991: -- U.S. officials say that, in the information disclosed to the IAEA in preceding days, Iraq has admitted to having enough weapons-grade uranium to make one nuclear bomb. Iraq did not disclose the location of its nuclear materials or details of its nuclear program. The IAEA requests permission from Iraq to inspect its nuclear facilities.
May 5, 1991: -- Gulf Cooperation Council ministers meet in Kuwait to discuss postwar security arrangements and Iran's role in regional security.
May 7, 1991: -- U.S. deputy national security adviser Robert Gates, in a speech to the American Newspaper Publishers Association in Canada, states that all economic sanctions will be maintained against Iraq until Iraqi president Saddam Hussein is removed from power.
May 8, 1991: -- In a New York Times report, U.S. officials say that Iraqi anti-aircraft gunners for the fifth time since the cease-fire was declared have fired on a U.S. navy plane in northern Iraq.
-- Defense Department Spokesman Bob Hall says coalition forces have provided 13,140 tons of food and other relief supplies to Kurdish refugees.
May 10, 1991: -- The U.N. announces that all allied forces have withdrawn from southern Iraq and that a demilitarized zone is in place in the six-mile buffer region between Iraq and Kuwait.
May 12, 1991: -- Kurdish elders reject a U.S.-brokered Iraqi proposal that would allow almost 200,000 Kurds to return safely to their homes in Dahuk. The elders say they cannot return without either a signed agreement with Iraqi President Hussein guaranteeing their safety or the presence of allied troops in the city. Other Kurdish leaders meeting with Hussein in Baghdad had supported the plan.
May 14, 1991: -- U.S. forces leave the mountain region along the Iraqi-Turkish border where they had been administering relief. Most refugees have returned to Iraq.
May 15, 1991: -- A 34-member team from the IAEA begins inspecting Iraq's nuclear installations for military potential, in accordance with the Gulf War cease-fire agreement.
May 17, 1991: -- Rolf Ekeus, the executive chairman of the commission created by the U.N. Security Council to oversee the destruction of Iraqi weapons, announces that Iraq has agreed to the terms of inspection set forth by an IAEA team, allowing the team to examine facilities and meet with officials.
May 20, 1991: -- The U.N. Security Council adopts Resolution 692 establishing a "war damage fund" requiring Iraq to pay a percentage of its future oil revenues as war reparations. The vote is 14-0 with one abstention (Cuba).
May 22, 1991: -- Congress approves a $571 million emergency assistance bill (PL 102-55) for displaced persons in and near Iraq.
May 24, 1991: -- The U.N. and Iraq agree on an "annex" to the understanding reached on April 18 allowing expansion of U.N. relief operations.
June 1, 1991: -- Allied forces officially close the last Kurdish refugee camp in Turkey, near Cukurca, and prepare to leave the border area.
-- In meetings in Cairo, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak tells U.S. Defense Secretary Cheney that Egypt will send peacekeeping and border patrol forces to Kuwait.
June 2, 1991: -- In the most violent and sustained clashes since allied forces took control of Zakhu, hundreds of Kurds demonstrate in the streets, attacking Iraqi police officers and calling on the U.S. forces to remain in northern Iraq to protect them. Demonstrations also occur in Irbil, Sulaymaniyya, and Diyabil.
June 8, 1991: -- Rolf Ekeus, head of the U.N. team assigned to eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, announces that the IAEA has secured all of Iraq's weapons-grade nuclear stocks.
June 13, 1991: -- U.S. inspectors call on the U.N. to inspect a site in northern Iraq where Iraq allegedly had conducted nuclear weapons research and had stored weapons-grade uranium. An Iraqi nuclear scientist who had turned himself over to U.S. soldiers during the previous week revealed the location and said there were eight nuclear sites in Iraq. Only three had been bombed by allied forces during the war.
June 15, 1991: -- The last allied forces leave Dahuk. June 17, 1991: -- The U.N. Security Council unanimously approves a plan intended to prevent Iraq from obtaining any military materiel. Under the plan, each country has 45 days to report to Secretary-General Perez de Cuellar on how they will insure the compliance of their citizens and corporations with the embargo.
-- The U.N. Security Council states that Iraq will have to pay for the destruction of its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
-- Egypt, Syria and the Gulf Cooperation Council states reaffirm the Damascus Declaration, a plan signed March 6 in Damascus calling for the formation of an Arab security force, including Egyptian and Syrian forces to replace allied forces in Kuwait.
June 17, 1991: -- The U.N. Security Council in a 15-0 vote approves Resolution 699 holding Iraq liable for the full costs of carrying out provisions of UNSC Resolution 687 for the destruction, removal or rendering harmless all chemical and biological weapons and ballistic missiles. The vote is unanimous (15-0).
-- The U.N. Security Council adopts Resolution 700 approving guidelines established in Resolution 687 to prevent the sale to Iraq of arms, related material and technology. It entrusts the committee established under Resolution 661 to monitor international compliance with these prohibitions. The vote is unanimous (15-0).
June 25, 1991: -- Rolf Ekeus, head of the U.N. team assigned to eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, announces that an Iraqi army commander has blocked two attempts by U.N. inspectors to examine a military site north of Baghdad.
-- The Kuwaiti government announces the end of martial law. June 26, 1991: -- In a meeting with the U.N. Security Council, U.S. intelligence officials release reconnaissance photographs that document Iraqi efforts to conceal equipment allegedly used to manufacture nuclear weapons. The United States accuses Iraq of failing to disclose fully its nuclear weapons equipment and arsenal in its April 18 and 30 inventories.
June 28, 1991: -- Iraqi soldiers refuse admission to several members of a team of U.N. inspectors seeking to examine a convoy of trucks parked in a military compound east of Baghdad. Soldiers fired over the heads of other team members who tried to film the convoy.
-- U.N. inspectors in Baghdad suspend efforts to examine Iraqi facilities until a high-level U.N. delegation arrives in Baghdad for meetings with the government on their behalf.
-- On the third attempt, U.N. officials are allowed to enter and inspect an Iraqi army barracks north of Baghdad. Following the inspection, the officials accuse Iraq of removing allegedly nuclear-related equipment.
June 30, 1991: -- In Baghdad, Rolf Ekeus, head of the U.N. team assigned to eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, meets with Iraqi Foreign Minister Ahmad Hussein to demand access to Iraqi equipment allegedly used for uranium enrichment. Iraq maintained that it did not possess such equipment.
July 1, 1991: -- A high-level U.N. delegation meets with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Aziz in an effort to gain for U.N. inspectors better access to Iraq's nuclear equipment and facilities. Iraqi authorities, however, continue to prevent the delegation from inspecting suspected nuclear-related equipment.
July 2, 1991: -- In Baghdad, a high-level U.N. delegation prepares to leave without having arranged for the inspection of suspected nuclear-related equipment and without having received "satisfactory clarification" of the equipment's use.
July 5, 1991: -- The U.N. Security Council meets to discuss the content of a letter from Iraqi president Hussein assuring compliance with the demands of the U.N. inspection teams. The council also discusses the report about the U.N. delegation's unsuccessful efforts to inspect Iraqi nuclear facilities.
July 6, 1991: -- Iraq, under the supervision of a U.N. team, destroys the last of its 61 known Scud missiles as well as 28 warheads, 10 mobile launchers and other military equipment, in accord with U.N. Security Council Resolution 687.
-- A third U.N. inspection team visits two sites inspected by previous teams to assess the accuracy of claims that Iraq has not fully disclosed its nuclear equipment.
July 7, 1991: -- Agence France-Presse, reporting from unidentified United Nations sources, says that 18 army officers have been executed for plotting to overthrow President Hussein.
July 8, 1991: -- Five permanent United Nations Security Council representatives, meeting in Paris on arms transfers and non-proliferation, call for a weapons-of-mass-destruction-free-zone in the Middle East. The U.S., Britain, China, France and the Soviet Union agree to meet in September 1991 to develop information exchanges concerning arms transfers to the region.
-- Iraq submits a revised list of its nuclear sites and materials that included information that previously had not been disclosed and listed sites not under international supervision. The team is allowed full access to the facilities.
July 10, 1991: -- The U.N. announces plans to open a humanitarian center in Hammar, in Iraq's southern marshland regions, to care for Shi'a opposition members hiding there.
July 11, 1991: -- U.S. State Department legal adviser Michael J. Matheson tells Congress that the government of Iraq is "fully liable" under both existing international law and U.N. Security Council Resolution 687 for wanton environmental damage caused during its occupation of Kuwait.
-- Pentagon officials say that President Bush had approved a list of about 20 command and control targets that would be attacked if Iraq did not cooperate with U.N. teams investigating nuclear capabilities.
July 12, 1991: -- The Defense Department announces that the final 3,300 allied forces in northern Iraq are now withdrawing and that a 2,500-person "rapid deployment force" from Belgium, Britain, France, Italy the Netherlands and Turkey will be established in southeastern Turkey to deter Iraqi attacks on Kurds. Restrictions on Iraqi military movements in the north remain in place.
July 13, 1991: -- Protesting against the allied withdrawal from northern Iraq, more than 3,000 Kurds demonstrate at the Habur border crossing, preventing forces from leaving for more than three hours. The Kurds fear Iraqi government reprisals after the allied forces leave.
July 14, 1991: -- French president Francois Mitterrand states in a national television interview that he supports the renewed use of military force against Iraq if the government moves against Kurds or other Iraqis or if it continues to develop nuclear weapons.
-- Iraq submits to the U.N. another revised list of its clandestine nuclear installations.
-- Foreign ministers from Egypt, Syria and the Gulf Cooperation Council states meet in Kuwait to discuss long-term security arrangements for the region as called for in the Damascus Declaration.
July 15, 1991: -- The U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) reports that it has found another large, multi-billion-dollar uranium enrichment plant that Baghdad omitted from its declarations to the Security Council.
-- The last allied forces withdraw from Iraq. July 18, 1991: -- Iraq formally pledges to the U.N. that all of its nuclear plants and secrets have been revealed to U.N. inspection teams.
-- The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) formally condemns Iraq for violating its agreement as a signatory of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty to declare and open for inspection all nuclear research and facilities.
-- Rolf Ekeus, head of the U.N. Special Commission in charge of eliminating Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, reports to U.N. Security Council permanent members that Iraq admits to building "superguns" allegedly capable of firing chemical, biological and nuclear weapons hundreds of miles.
July 25, 1991: -- The deadline set by the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council for Iraq's full disclosure of its nuclear program passes quietly with diplomats still dissatisfied with Baghdad's response.
July 26, 1991: -- President Bush notifies the Congress that he has extended his Executive Orders of August 2 and 9, 1990, declaring a complete embargo on trade with Iraq.
July 27, 1991: -- A fourth U.N. inspection team arrives in Iraq to study its arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.
July 28, 1991: -- The Voice of Iraqi Opposition reports that president Saddam Hussein had executed 90 officers in the Republican Guard who allegedly had plotted to overthrow the government and to assassinate government leaders.
July 30, 1991: -- In a meeting with the U.N. Security Council, U.N. official Rolf Ekeus reports that inspectors in Iraq have uncovered more than four times as many chemical weapons and materials for weapons as Baghdad initially reported possessing.
August 2, 1991: -- A U.N. team of biological weapons inspectors arrives in Baghdad, despite the fact that Iraq has declared it has no biological weapons program.
-- The New York Times reports that a tough, all-encompassing plan for long-range monitoring of Iraq's nuclear technology has been submitted to the Security Council by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Diplomats say that the plan calls for the most stringent inspection requirements in history.
August 5, 1991: -- Iraq admits to carrying out biological weapons research and having three grams of undeclared plutonium. It also admits to deliberately misleading U.N. inspectors about its secret biological weapons program.
-- In its second review of Iraqi compliance with Resolution 687, the U.N. Security Council decides that the wide-ranging economic and military sanctions regime against Iraq should not be changed.
August 7, 1991: -- UNIKOM monitors report that Iraqi military personnel made illegal night raids into Kuwaiti territory in the demilitarized zone to retrieve stockpiles left behind at the end of the war.
August 8, 1991: -- The Washington Post reports that international inspectors probing Iraq's nuclear program discovered a sophisticated, previously secret factory designed to produce hundreds of centrifuges capable of enriching uranium for a bomb. Inspectors who visited the factory concluded that it could have been operational within a year or so.
August 12, 1991: -- The Special Commission overseeing the destruction of Iraq's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons announces that it is using a U.S. high-altitude surveillance plane to monitor Iraq's weapons facilities and any movement of materials from those sites.
August 15, 1991: -- The U.N. Security Council adopts resolutions 705, 706 and 707 Resolution 705, setting a ceiling of required Iraqi contributions to compensation fund at 30% of proceeds from Iraqi oil revenues, passes unanimously (15-0).
Resolution 706, authorizing limited one-time sale of $1,600 million of Iraqi oil to finance emergency humanitarian relief under strict U.N. control, passed 13 for, 1 against (Cuba), 1 abstention (Yemen).
Resolution 707, condemning Iraq's violations of the nuclear and weapons of mass destruction provisions of Resolution 687, passed unanimously (15-0).
September 9, 1991: -- In a letter to the president of the U.N. Security Council, U.N. official Rolf Ekeus reports that Iraq has reversed an earlier decision and is forbidding U.N. inspectors to conduct independent aerial checks using U.N. helicopters and planes while in Iraqi airspace.
September 12, 1991: -- A U.N. inspection team led by Thomas Brock announces that it will leave Iraq without having thoroughly inspected Iraq's ballistic missile systems because authorities have denied them permission to use non-Iraqi helicopters to complete the inspections.
September 18, 1991: -- In an attempt to force Iraq to allow U.N. inspectors to conduct independent aerial inspections of the country, president Bush authorizes the U.S. military to accompany the inspectors.
-- The U.N. Security Council adopts Resolution 712 providing for the implementation of Resolution 706. It will allow a limited, one-time sale of Iraqi oil to fund the purchase of humanitarian items needed for the people of Iraq and for Iraqi reparations for war damages. The vote is 13-1 (Cuba) with one abstention (Yemen).
September 23, 1991: -- Iraqi officials detain a team of U.N. inspectors led by David Kay in a building in Baghdad. Iraq claims that the team has exceeded its mandate by copying and removing personnel records of scientists and researchers as well as records of the purchase of foreign supplies.
-- In an interview with the Washington Post, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan leader Talabani alleges that Iraq is preventing some 300,000 Kurds from returning to their homes from hiding places in mountains along the Turkish border.
September 26, 1991: -- The U.N. and the U.S. government agree to provide Iraq with an inventory of documents taken by the U.N. inspection team led by David Kay in exchange for the release of Kay and other team members detained in a Baghdad parking lot since September 23.
October 1, 1991: -- A team of United Nations ballistics experts flies to Baghdad to begin a search throughout that country for Scud missile launchers and rockets and to destroy the Iraqis' "supergun" artillery. The trip will also test Iraqi willingness to allow U.N. inspectors to use helicopters freely.
October 3, 1991: -- For the first time, Iraq permits U.N. inspectors in Iraq to use helicopters to conduct aerial inspections.
October 8, 1991: -- U.N. weapons inspectors supervise the destruction of two Iraqi "superguns."
October 11, 1991: -- The U.N. Security Council adopts Resolution 715 reaffirming previous resolutions on the Gulf crisis and authorizing the IAEA to implement a long-term monitoring plan intended to prevent Iraq from rebuilding its chemical, nuclear and biological weapons programs. The vote is unanimous.
October 15, 1991: -- Iraq warns that U.N. helicopter inspection flights are in danger of being shot down because they are in the same airspace that Israeli surveillance flights violated on October 8.
October 15, 1991: -- The U.N. Sanctions Committee adopts a plan to oversee Iraq's sale of $1,600 million in oil to pay for humanitarian supplies and war damage.
October 16, 1991: -- Baghdad asks the United Nations to ensure that Israeli aircraft do not violate Iraqi airspace and warns that they will not be responsible for the safety of U.N. planes if Israeli flights are not curbed.
October 21, 1991: -- In his annual report to the U.N. General Assembly, Hans Blix, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, reports that Iraq had scientific and technical programs in place to make nuclear bombs despite its assertion to the contrary.
-- The New York Times reports Iraq's continued refusal to accept the guidelines laid down by the U.N. Security Council for the sale of $1.6 billion in Iraqi oil and the emergency purchase of food and medical supplies.
October 22, 1991: -- Dimitri Perricos, the chief of the seventh U.N. inspection team to visit Iraq, reports that the Iraqi authorities have for the first time admitted in a written declaration that they conducted research on building atomic bombs.
October 23, 1991: -- The U.N. Security Council endorses a plan for destroying all plants and equipment in Iraq associated with the Baghdad government's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs.
November 6, 1991: -- The last of the burning oil wells of Kuwait is extinguished and capped. Extinguishing all the fires took eight months, less time than anyone expected.
November 13, 1991: -- Rolf Ekeus, head of the U.N. Special Commission overseeing the destruction of Iraq's weapons, announces that a team of U.N. inspectors will begin inspections of undisclosed Iraqi biological weapons plant.
November 15, 1991: -- The first shipment of highly enriched uranium is flown out of Iraq by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
-- A 26-member United Nations inspection team visits chemical weapons sites declared by Iraq in remote areas of the country and reports that it counted "thousands of bombs, shells and warheads filled with lethal chemical agents, many of them damaged and leaking."
-- The New York Times reports that Kurdish leaders meeting in northern Iraq have reached an agreement with Baghdad for the government to end a partial economic blockade of Kurdistan in return for a withdrawal of most Kurdish guerrilla forces in the area. For more than two weeks, the Iraqi army had slowed or stopped gasoline supplies to Kurdish areas and deliveries of government food rations were halted.
November 19, 1991: -- Max van der Stoel, special U.N. rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iraq, presents a 77-page report to the General Assembly. The report contains allegations of cruel and inhumane practices against Kurds, Shi'a and other Iraqis suspected of opposing the regime of Saddam Hussein.
November 25, 1991: -- Exiled Iraqi opposition leaders urge the Security Council to maintain sanctions against Saddam Hussein's regime.
November 26, 1991: -- The first part of the U.S. task force in Kuwait, composed of 1500 soldiers, begins withdrawing to Germany.
-- The United Nations team of chemical weapons experts in Baghdad ends a week of detailed technical talks on the upcoming destruction of Iraq's massive chemical weapons arsenal.
-- The Washington Post reports unrest within Iraq's military establishment. November 27, 1991: -- The Senate Foreign Relations Committee releases a document which asserts that Baghdad is violating a United Nations ban by moving heavy equipment into Iran. The document cites assertions by Kurdish forces in northern Iraq that "whole factories" of contraband have been moved across the frontier. Senate staff members report they observed activities that support the Kurds' charges.
December 2, 1991: -- The U.N. Compensation Commission Governing Council approves the final procedure for claiming compensation from Iraq for damages caused in the Persian Gulf war and sets an 18-month deadline for governments to file their claims with the Council.
December 23, 1991: -- In Kuwait, leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council opened their first summit since the end of the Persian Gulf War with talks planned on a proposed 100,000-member joint security force and a unified military strategy.
January 7, 1992: -- The United Nations launched an appeal for $145.3 million to continue its own humanitarian program in Iraq for the first six months of 1992.
January 10, 1992: -- U.N. and Iraqi officials conclude three days of talks on Baghdad's refusal to sell $1600 million worth of oil under a Security Council plan which would provide Iraq with funds to buy humanitarian supplies for its people and begin paying war-related debts.
January 13, 1992:
-- The United States contributes $36 million to a U.N.-sponsored international relief organization program aiding displaced Iraqi civilians in Iran and the region.
-- Pentagon spokesman Bob Hall announces that the U.S. has received more than 97 percent of the Operation Desert Storm commitments pledged by its allies.
January 14, 1992: -- In a quarterly report to the Congress, President Bush states that Iraq continues to obstruct efforts by teams of the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect suspected weapons sites.
January 15, 1992: -- CIA Director Robert Gates tells Congress that Saddam Hussein could rebuild Iraq's ability to make nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and its ballistic missile program within a few years.
January 16, 1992: -- President Bush, on the anniversary of Operation Desert Storm, declares he is determined to "keep the pressure" on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein "until a new leadership comes to power in Iraq." Defense Secretary Cheney says Saddam Hussein is now weaker than he was at the end of the conflict.
January 17, 1992: -- In a speech to the Iraqi people, Saddam Hussein admits for the first time that Iraq had been militarily defeated, and serves notice that he intends to rebuild his military machine and again make Iraq a leading Arab power.
January 21, 1992: -- The Kuwaiti Association to Defend War Victims appeals for world support to secure the release of 1053 Kuwaitis it says are still being held captive in Iraq.
January 27, 1992: -- Iraqi police stand by as protesters jostled and harassed U.N. inspectors as they arrived at their hotel prior to beginning an inspection of chemical and biological weapons facilities.
-- Four representatives of the Security Council's Special Commission on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction make a three-day visit to Baghdad to discuss with the Iraqi government why various requests for information made by the commission's teams have not been met.
January 31, 1992: -- In its annual report on human rights around the world, the State Department notes that the magnitude of Iraqi human rights violations in 1991 was shocking, even by the previous standards of the Saddam Hussein regime. The report notes that human rights in virtually all categories continue to be systematically violated by the Iraqi regime.
-- USA Today quotes a U.S. Census report that the Gulf war and Saddam Hussein's bloody post-war repression of Kurds and Shiites killed an estimated 145,000 Iraqis in 1991.
-- The U.N. Security Council announces that U.N. sanctions and demands on Iraq remain in force.
February 4, 1992: -- A. U.N. spokesman reports that Baghdad has called off talks set for February 5 in Vienna that were to arrange for the sale of Iraqi oil to buy food and medicine and pay reparations.
February 5, 1992: -- Walter Kalin, the special U.N. rapporteur on Iraqi violations of human rights during its occupation of Kuwait, in a report to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, calls on Iraq's government to provide information on the many Kuwaitis unaccounted for since the end of the war.
Kalin says he has asked Baghdad for information on the missing persons, believed to number more than 2000.
-- Rolf Ekeus, chairman of the Special Commission on dismantling Iraqi weapons, says that Baghdad has told the U.N. it will not accept monitoring of future arms buildups or purchases.
-- Citing Iraq's defiance of U.N. resolutions dealing with the Gulf war, the U.N. Security Council decides to continue the economic sanctions imposed on Saddam Hussein's government.
February 6, 1992: -- Secretary of State Baker says the United Nations may be forced to take new actions if Iraq continues its non-compliance with Security Council resolutions and U.N. inspections concerning its weapons of mass destruction.
February 19, 1992: -- The U.N. Security Council warns that Baghdad faces "serious consequences" if it does not live up to its cease-fire obligations set out in U.N. resolutions 707 and 715. Its failure to provide the full, final and complete disclosure of its weapons capabilities "constitute a continuing material breach of the relevant provisions of (U.N. Security Council Resolution) 687," the council says.
-- The Security Council sends U.N. official Rolf Ekeus to Baghdad to secure "unconditional agreement" to comply with U.N. demands for the long-term weapons program monitoring.
February 20, 1992: -- Max van der Stoel, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Iraq, releases his 82-page report detailing Iraq's human rights abuses. "Many tens of thousands of people have disappeared" under Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime," he reports. The special rapporteur recommends that the 53-nation Human Rights Commission send monitors to Iraq and that "some kind of permanent U.N. presence be established in the area" to avert "a new blood bath."
-- Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney, in Buenos Aires, says the United States will continue to support existing sanctions on Iraq until it fully complies with all U.N. resolutions. "We are not planning to mount another Desert Storm (military operation)," he said, "but we do maintain significant military capability in the region should the situation arise."
February 21-23, 1992: -- U.S. Ambassador J. Kenneth Blackwell, responding in Geneva to the special rapporteur's report, says the U.S. "strongly supports" sending United Nations human rights monitors to Iraq and to extending the mandate of the U.N. special rapporteur there.
February 24, 1992: -- U.N. Special Commission envoy Rolf Ekeus leaves Baghdad after talks with Iraq fail to produce any significant results. Ekeus says he and top Iraqi officials could not even agree on a joint statement to the Security Council about Iraq's latest refusal to cooperate with weapons inspectors. Iraqi officials indicate that the monitoring was accepted "only in principle" and is subject to considerations of "sovereignty, national security and non-infringement on Iraq's industrial capabilities."
-- Middle East Watch and Physicians for Human Rights release a report citing evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime committed "crimes against humanity" by gassing, deporting and massacring Kurds and destroying some 4,000 villages.
February 26, 1992: -- Assistant Secretary of State Edward Djerejian, marking the first anniversary of the liberation of Kuwait, says the United States has a clear message for Saddam Hussein: "Comply totally and immediately with all United Nations Security Council resolutions."
-- Iraq again denies access to equipment scheduled for destruction by U.N. inspectors.
-- The United Nations Security Council warns Iraq that it faces "serious consequences" unless it agrees to implement U.N. resolutions requiring the elimination of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
February 27, 1992: -- Iraq sends a letter to the Security Council rejecting a U.N. plan to destroy missile equipment with a range of over 150 kilometers as required by Resolution 687; instead, Iraq proposes to hold further discussions.
-- U.N. Security Council president Thomas Pickering calls in Iraqi diplomats to convey the council's "deep concern and consternation" over Iraq's failure to cooperate with the special commission detailed to destroy Iraqi weapons. The U.S. ambassador says that Rolf Ekeus, the chairman of the Special Commission on Iraq, has reported that "the Iraqis remain in nearly complete non-compliance with certain important aspects" of the cease-fire conditions concerning biological, nuclear and ballistic weapons.
February 28, 1992: -- U.N. Security Council members issue a statement in which they "deplore and condemn the failure of the Government of Iraq" to provide the special mission with full, final and complete disclosure, as required by Resolution 707 (1991) and for its failure to "commence destruction of ballistic missile-related equipment designated for destruction by the Special Commission."
February 29, 1992: -- Dr. Najmaldin Karim, president of the Kurdish National Congress, in an interview on the McNeil-Lehrer news hour, announces that parliamentary elections in Iraqi Kurdistan will take place in April.
March 1, 1992: -- The Government of Kuwait issues a statement urging the United Nations to force Iraq to comply "immediately" with Security Council resolutions.
-- British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd, in an televised interview with David Frost, says "it is essential that those particular weapons be destroyed." Hurd dismisses calculations that the coalition will break down or will be unable to get approval to use force again. "We do not rule out...going back to military action.... Saddam (Hussein)...must not be allowed to become a threat to the rest of the world again."
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File Identification: 03/04/92, PO-309; 03/04/92, NX-304; 03/04/92, EU-324; 03/05/92, AR-408; 03/05/92, AX-401; 03/05/92, EP-420; 03/09/92, AF-106
Product Name: Wireless File
Product
Code: WF
Languages: French
Keywords: IRAQ/Defense & Military; IRAQ-KUWAIT RELATIONS; MILITARY OCCUPATION; PERSIAN GULF WAR; HUSSEIN, SADDAM; IRAQ-US RELATIONS; UNITED NATIONS-SECURITY COUNCIL;
ARMISTICE; FIRES; OIL FIELDS; HUMANITARIAN AID; IRAQ/Politics & Govern
Document Type: CHR
Thematic Codes: 1NE; 1UN; 1AC; 2HA
Target Areas: NE; EU; AR; AF; EA
PDQ Text Link: 218167; 218809
USIA Notes: *92030409.POL
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