ACCESSION NUMBER:00000
FILE ID:96061301.NNE
DATE:06/13/96
TITLE:13-06-96 SECURITY COUNCIL DEMANDS IRAQ LET INSPECTORS INTO WEAPON SITES
TEXT:
(Unanimously adopts resolution) (570)
By Judy Aita
USIA United Nations Correspondent
United Nations -- The Security Council June 12 unanimously deplored
Baghdad's refusal to allow U.N. weapons experts to inspect various
sites and demanded that Iraq cooperate fully with the U.N. Special
Commission overseeing the destruction of Iraqi weapons (UNSCOM).
The council unanimously adopted a resolution containing the demands
after Iraq flatly refused to allow a team of weapons experts looking
for documents, missiles or missile launchers and material relating to
nuclear weapons programs into two Republican Guard sites in two days.
"Let me be clear, this council must not tolerate challenges to its
authority. The Iraqi regime must not be allowed to interfere with the
work of the U.N. Special Commission -- UNSCOM," said U.S. Ambassador
Madeleine Albright.
"This is why it is so important that our message be swift and strong
-- and this resolution meets those tests," said Albright, who was a
co-sponsor of the resolution.
"Blocking UNSCOM inspectors from an entire category of suspect sites
is a new situation and is a matter of grave concern to my government,"
Albright said.
The 54-member UNSCOM team is headed by inspector Nikita Smidovich of
Russia and includes ballistic and nuclear experts. In addition to
attempting to visit a Republican Guard site west of Baghdad and
another guard site in Baghdad, the team has been making spot visits of
industrial facilities.
Under a series of resolutions passed at the end of the Gulf war, Iraq
is to be rid of all chemical, biological, nuclear and ballistic
weapons and a long-term monitoring program is to be established to
ensure that Iraq does not re-acquire the banned weapons. UNSCOM must
certify to the council when those conditions exist before the economic
sanctions and oil embargo will be lifted.
A team headed by Smidovich was involved in a similar series of
standoffs in March.
"There is a high probability Iraq is hiding items which we are
convinced still exist in the country," UNSCOM Chairman Rolf Ekeus told
journalists after a private meeting with the council. He would not say
precisely what the inspectors were looking for.
Ekeus, however, reminded journalists that one of the sites was
searched five years ago after a standoff and equipment for enriching
uranium for a nuclear weapons project was discovered.
Iraq insists that it will not allow U.N. inspectors to enter sites
that it feels are crucial to its sovereignty and national security.
Albright said that "Iraq's assertion that its security is threatened
by unarmed inspections is laughable."
"It is not the inspectors who threaten Iraq, but Iraq which threatens
the region," Albright said. "The invasion and occupation of Kuwait,
the campaign against the Kurds and Shia and the use of terrorism by
Iraq are ample and incontrovertible proof that this regime still poses
a serious threat to the security of the region."
The resolution demands that "Iraq cooperate fully with the Special
Commission ... and that the Government of Iraq allow the Special
Commission inspection teams immediate, unconditional and unrestricted
access to any and all areas, facilities, equipment, records and means
of transportation which they wish to inspect."
The council called Iraq's action "a clear violation of the provisions"
of the three council resolutions dealing with the weapons destruction
and long-term monitoring.
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