06 November 1997
U.N. WARNS IRAQ NOT TO MOVE EQUIPMENT
(Envoys waiting for letter from Saddam Hussein to Kofi Annan) (980) By Judy Aita USIA United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- As its special envoys wrapped up their diplomatic mission in Baghdad, the United Nations clashed with Iraq November 6 over Iraq's attempts to move equipment and supplies away from U.N. monitoring cameras. After a closed door meeting, Security Council President Qin Huasun of China told journalists that the council members are concerned over the removal of the equipment and restate their demand that Iraq "should comprehensively implement relevant council resolutions." "To interfere in any way in the ongoing monitoring is not in conformity with the relevant council resolutions. The council hopes that any recurrence will be avoided," the council president said. Qin said that the council is supporting the diplomatic mission now in Baghdad "and does not wish to see any situation detrimental to the solution" of the current problems. British Ambassador Sir John Weston said that all council members "share the view that any attempt to interfere with or dismantle the apparatus belonging to UNSCOM -- which is there for the purpose of the monitoring and verification of the (disarmament) regime -- is unacceptable." Moving and tampering with equipment is prohibited, the British ambassador said, "and that's why we all think it is important to restate the principle that any attempt to interfere with or dismantle UNSCOM's long-term monitoring and verification apparatus is unacceptable to us and is contrary to U.N. Security Council resolutions." The diplomatic team has held a total of four meetings with Iraqi officials, a U.N. spokesman said. It is now waiting for a letter from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to Secretary General Kofi Annan. The letter is expected to be a response to the letter the team brought to Hussein from the secretary general. "The Iraqi delegation earlier today promised to give a written reply to the U.N. envoys before their departure," U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said. The three envoys are tentatively scheduled to leave Baghdad November 7 about 1 p.m. local time. They are to return to U.N. headquarters in New York and are expected to report to the council on November 10. The team is headed by former Algerian Foreign Minister Lakhdar Brahimi, currently U.N. special envoy to Afghanistan, and includes Ambassador Emilio Cardenas of Argentina and Ambassador Jan Eliasson of Sweden, a former U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs. The team is attempting to convince Baghdad to rescind it's decision to expel American weapons inspectors employed by UNSCOM and not allow any more U.S. nationals to enter the country. There are currently six Americans out of about 40 inspectors with UNSCOM in Iraq. Ambassador Richard Butler, chairman of the Special Commission overseeing the destruction of Iraqi weapons (UNSCOM) reported to the council late in the evening November 5 that "significant pieces of dual-capable equipment, subject to monitoring by the commission's remote camera monitoring system, have been moved out of view of the cameras." "It appears that cameras may have been intentionally tampered with, lenses covered and lighting turned off in the facilities under monitoring," he said. "The movement of such equipment, without prior notification, is prohibited under the Commission's monitoring plan and the equipment concerned is subject to continuous camera monitoring, precisely because of its easy adaptation to prohibited activities," Butler said. The equipment includes gyroscope rotor balancing equipment which could be used to balance prohibited missile gyroscopes, he said. The UNSCOM chairman noted that it would take only a matter of hours to adapt fermenters to produce seed stocks of biological warfare agent. For the fourth day in a row Iraqi officials have blocked UNSCOM inspections because Americans were present on the teams. UNSCOM's monitoring inspections have now not taken place for one week, Butler told the council. In a letter to the council, Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Al-Sahaf acknowledged that his government did move equipment "that may be subject to military attacks as happened in 1993" to "distant sites." In a television interview, Butler characterized the obstruction of the cameras as "very serious." "Those cameras are there to watch things that are important in terms of making weapons of mass destruction. If we can't see, we don't know what's happening," he said. Butler noted that the latest problems have arisen during a week in which UNSCOM was unable to carry out inspections. "While our backs were obliged to be turned, this stuff started to happen," he said. "I don't know exactly what it means." "Before this period started (the equipment) was there, we could see it. Now it's been moved, so the question is: where is it, what are you doing with it," Butler said. Responding to Iraqi charges that he is blackmailing the Security Council by misleading it, Butler said, "how extraordinary. The very idea that I would be in that position with respect to the Security Council is nothing short of ludicrous. It completely underestimates the power of the council and completely overestimates my authority." Butler also said that he has ordered U-2 reconnaissance flights to be resumed November 10. "I have instructed that the window be opened on Monday. What we do is we give Iraq notice of a window, this is a period of time within which it will fly," he said. The UNSCOM official again stressed that the U-2 is not a U.S. spy plane. "There is so much stuff that has been said about that plane that just is wrong," he said. "It works for the U.N. -- it has U.N. painted on its tail -- and does what I ask it to do, which is to look at the ground at sites that are relevant to our arms control disarmament process," Butler said.
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