ACCESSION NUMBER:371836
FILE ID:POL103
DATE:12/19/94
TITLE:IRAQ STILL WITHHOLDING WEAPONS INFORMATION, U.N. SAYS (12/19/94)
TEXT:*94121903.POL
IRAQ STILL WITHHOLDING WEAPONS INFORMATION, U.N. SAYS
(New Ekeus report to U.N. Security Council) (740)
By Judy Aita
USIA United Nations Correspondent
United Nations -- Iraq "falls far short" of its obligation to provide the
United Nations with complete details of its banned weapons programs and is
deliberately withholding information, a top U.N. official has reported to
the U.N. Security Council.
Recounting Iraq's lack of cooperation with the U.N. over the past six
months, Ambassador Rolf Ekeus says the U.N. "has both direct and indirect
evidence that Iraq is still failing to declare equipment and materials
acquired for and capable of use in proscribed programs and that its
accounts of certain of its projects do not reflect their true purpose and
their role as part of now proscribed weapons programs."
Ekeus, who is chairman of the U.N. Special Commission overseeing the
destruction of Iraqi weapons programs (UNSCOM), says in a written report
released December 19 that Iraq was "generally cooperative" in allowing U.N.
weapons experts to visit sites, set up long-term monitoring equipment, and
tag items that have a "dual purpose" -- ones that could be used for
peaceful manufacturing or in the production of banned chemical, biological,
or nuclear weapons.
However, the chairman says "Iraq has not volunteered information and has
shown marked lack of transparency, disclosing information only when
confronted with evidence by the commission."
Many of Iraq's declarations to the Special Commission "are incomplete and
1ometimes contradictory," he says.
In an attempt to independently piece together a complete picture of Iraq's
weapons programs, the commission has greatly increased its contacts with
governments that supplied Iraq with arms and supplies prior to Baghdad's
1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Ekeus' report says the commission does not believe that Iraq has destroyed
all the documents related to the banned chemical, biological, nuclear and
ballistic missile programs or that no other tangible proof exists on the
extent or details of the weapons programs.
"Events of the past six months have strengthened the commission's conviction
that important documentation still exists and that the Iraqi authorities
have taken the conscious decision not to release it freely to the
commission," it says.
UNSCOM has great problems accounting for Iraq's past biological programs,
Ekeus says. "Iraq's account is minimal and has no inherent logic," he
says, noting that its officials have either refused to answer the U.N.
experts' questions or have provided only incomplete and misleading
information.
In November, he says, Iraq finally presented new information on biological
weapons equipment and material to enable the U.N. to begin initial
long-term monitoring.
In the chemical weapons area, he says, the commission cannot be sure that
Iraq has fully accounted for all the precursor chemicals and production
equipment it imported.
In the missile area, the U.N. has a fuller account of Iraq's past programs
but the problem is with the long-term verification. "Areas of particular
concern related to accounting for known imports of components and
production equipment," the report says.
A prime example, it says, related to the import of a high precision
instrumentation radar. The U.N. has firm evidence that the radar was
imported for Iraq's long-range ballistic missile program and was used in
testing the missiles.
"Iraq denied this outright and has presented numerous different and
conflicting explanations of the use and purpose of this radar," saying
first that it was disassembled in 1990 and later that it was used in
tracking missiles in late December 1990, Ekeus says.
UNSCOM has ordered the radar destroyed.
"Iraq must provide credible accounts for all its past proscribed programs
and capabilities and supporting evidence to enable the commission
independently to verify its declarations so that the commission can achieve
a material balance for the past programs and thereby have confidence that
its ongoing monitoring and verification system is proceeding from a sound
basis," the report insists.
"Without such confidence," it declares, "the commission cannot be certain
that it is indeed monitoring all the facilities and items in Iraq which
should be monitored if the requirements of the Security Council are to be
fulfilled."
The Security Council will use the report during its periodic sanctions
review, which will be held in January. The council's determination that
Iraq has complied with all the gulf war cease-fire demands concerning the
weapons programs will be key to the eventual lifting of sanctions,
especially the oil embargo.
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