ACCESSION NUMBER:00000
FILE ID:96031802.NNE
DATE:03/18/96
TITLE:18-03-96 IRAQ CONTINUES TO BLOCK U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTORS, UNSCOM REPORTS
TEXT:
(UNSCOM head sees new pattern emerging) (630)
By Judy Aita
USIA United Nations Correspondent
United Nations -- Telling the Security Council that Baghdad has been
systematically denying U.N. weapons inspectors access to Iraqi
facilities, Ambassador Rolf Ekeus said March 18 that his inspectors
still cannot be sure that Iraq has destroyed all prohibited weapons.
Ekeus, chairman of the Special Commission overseeing the destruction
of Iraqi weapons (UNSCOM), said "we are concerned about biological
warheads, biological warfare agents in missile warheads, and chemical
warhead agents also filed into missile warheads. We have not accounted
for these."
"So if we combine the missiles and biological warheads you have a
strategic (ability) which could influence the whole region," Ekeus
said.
"Our concerns are still such that we have not cleared up completely
that Iraq is free from prohibited missiles," Ekeus said.
Ekeus held a private session with the Security Council March 18 to
discuss Iraq's denying access to UNSCOM inspectors five times during a
ten-day period. This latest series of inspections are the result of
UNSCOM's analysis of the information it received in August and
September 1995, both from a cache of documents from Iraq officials and
from Iraqi defector General Hussein Kamal, who was killed after
returning to Iraq earlier this year.
The large UNSCOM team of weapons experts from several countries had
been searching "for weapons, first of all missiles, missile
components, and documentation relevant to missiles," Ekeus told
journalists after his meeting with the council.
"We did not find immediately any missile launchers (or) missile
components, but the final conclusion of the inspection is too early to
make," he said.
Team members are now at UNSCOM's regional headquarters in Bahrain
making their first broad assessment. The chief inspector and some team
members will then return to UNSCOM headquarters in New York for the
final assessment.
Ekeus said that UNSCOM "has been questioned relentlessly" by states in
the region, members of the Security Council, and by the international
community at large about what it is doing to find the banned chemical,
biological, nuclear, and ballistic weapons and their production sites
and to prevent Iraq from using such weapons.
"This is the basis for our activities," the chairman said.
The problem began on March 8 when inspectors were stopped from
entering a building operated by the Iraqi Irrigation Ministry. After
negotiations between Iraqi officials and Ekeus, the inspectors were
allowed access. Then on the morning of March 11, forty inspectors were
stopped from entering a site about 50 kilometers southeast of Baghdad,
said to be a training facility for the Republican Guard. After several
hours of negotiations, the team was allowed onto the site.
Even after the Security Council sent a letter to Ekeus March 12
reconfirming UNSCOM's right to immediate, unrestricted, and
unconditional access to sites in Iraq, the denials continued. UNSCOM
inspectors went through similar negotiations twice on March 14 and
again on March 15 at other Republican Guard facilities.
"Altogether, on five occasions the team was blocked entry into
facilities we wanted to inspect," Ekeus said. He finally personally
went to the council after he saw a pattern emerging over time.
"I have seen five blockages now; it may not be a pattern, it may be a
coincidence, but I don't think so," he said. "I think it was a
pattern, yes. That was my judgment."
Since Iraq "almost immediately thereafter (the March 12 letter)
continued to block and defy" the U.N., Ekeus said he expects the
council will have some official reaction.
Council President Legwaila Legwaila said the council is preparing an
official statement that would probably be issued March 19 after
members have an opportunity to consult with their capitals.
NNNN
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
