ACCESSION NUMBER:00000
FILE ID:96071701.NNE
DATE:07/17/96
TITLE:17-07-96 SECURITY COUNCIL CHASTISES IRAQ FOR AGAIN BLOCKING INSPECTORS
TEXT:
(Says Iraq broke month-old agreement) (840)
By Judy Aita
USIA United Nations Correspondent
United Nations -- After hearing a report of new attempts by Iraq to
block U.N. weapons inspectors, the Security Council July 17 reminded
Iraq that it must allow the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM)
immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access to all sites it wants
to inspect.
A "disappointed" Rolf Ekeus, UNSCOM chairman, went to the council
after Iraq stopped 33 weapons experts from traveling to an undisclosed
site on the outskirts of Baghdad. The confrontation, as well as
another incident involving a different group of U.N. weapons
inspectors, took place July 16 as UNSCOM undertook the initial test of
an agreement signed in June by Ekeus and Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister
Tariq Aziz on UNSCOM access to sites throughout Iraq.
"An inspection team was again blocked on the road to carry out an
inspection -- not at the site, but on its way to a site. After delays
and protestations from our side, Iraq made the firm statement that
they would not allow us to pass through that road, which was the only
one, as we understood it, to the site," Ekeus told journalists after
his private meeting with the Security Council.
"So we had to give up that inspection," Ekeus said.
"I am disappointed. The actions are not in conformity with either the
letter or the spirit of that agreement, which I hoped would open a new
chapter in our operations," the UNSCOM chairman said.
After a series of similar standoffs earlier this year, Iraq and the
U.N. signed an agreement June 22 saying that Iraq would allow UNSCOM
weapons inspectors "immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access
to all sites which the Commission or the IAEA (International Atomic
Energy Commission) may wish to inspect."
Ekeus said that the 33-member team headed by chief inspector Nikita
Smidovich of Russia was stopped in an area not far from Iraq's
international airport. It was headed to an undisclosed site to look
for documents or remnants of Iraq's chemical and biological weapons
programs and missiles.
"We are in agreement with Iraq that they acquired these items ... but
Iraq then says they destroyed them unilaterally and secretly in 1991
after the war. We have no proof of such destruction and we want to see
either the documents or the materials. That is the problem now," Ekeus
said.
Iraqi officials refused to let the team proceed saying the road went
through "what they called 'the presidential area,'" he said.
"It was a road. It didn't look presidential to our people, but
secondly of course, there are no exceptions from inspections in Iraq,"
Ekeus said.
"We don't suspect that the president is hiding something in his own
facilities. I wouldn't hide chemical weapons in my basement in the
house," he said.
U.S. Ambassador Edward Gnehm called Iraq's latest blockade "a clear
violation of the agreement that has been reached and ... just
continued evidence that the Iraqis, while they may claim one thing, in
effect are acting to block the inspectors from undertaking the kind of
activities that they have to do if there is ever going to be any
resolution of the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction program."
Gnehm said that the council will continue to watch the situation and
discuss "what exactly should be done."
British Ambassador Sir John Weston said that "this is the first test
after that agreement was reached and Iraq has once again failed the
test."
"We are really fed up with being told one thing only to find the
Iraqis are doing another. Iraq is not taking the Security Council and
the international community seriously," Sir John said.
"It is going to have, I'm afraid, serious repercussions to the
detriment of Iraq because we will not reach the point where sanctions
can be lifted if this kind of non-cooperation goes on. It will simply
stop this program dead in its tracks," the British ambassador said.
Economic sanctions against Iraq, especially the oil embargo, will not
be lifted until UNSCOM has certified to the council that Iraq's banned
chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons and ballistic missile
programs have been destroyed. The inspections do not have any impact
on the special plan worked out with the council to sell $2,000 million
of oil every six months in order to buy food, medicine and other
humanitarian supplies for Iraqi civilians.
In a statement to the press, Council President Alain Dejammet said
that the members of the council "expressed their disappointment and
preoccupation about the difficulties and obstacles" Iraq has placed
before the UNSCOM inspectors.
"They unanimously recalled that Iraq must fully comply with the
resolutions of the Security Council and abide by the commitments
undertaken and conclusions reached" June 22 at the end of Ekeus'
mission to Baghdad, Dejammet said, adding that Ekeus and UNSCOM have
the council's "full support."
Dejammet will also call in Iraqi Ambassador Nizar Hamdoon.
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