20 November 1997
IRAQ HAS PROGRAM TO HIDE MATERIAL FROM UNSCOM INSPECTORS
(U.N. inspectors detail Iraqi efforts to hide weapons material) (700) By Judy Aita USIA United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- Members of the Special Commission overseeing the destruction of Iraqi weapons (UNSCOM) described for the Security Council November 19 the elaborate attempts Baghdad undertakes to keep information on banned chemical, biological, and ballistic weapons from the U.N. UNSCOM inspectors believe that Iraq continues to conceal parts of the weapons programs that must be destroyed according to the Gulf war cease-fire resolutions. During a private briefing, the council was shown photographs taken by U-2 surveillance planes of the movements of Iraqi personnel and trucks at inspection sites as U.N. weapons inspectors were being blocked from entering facilities. Selected photographs and details of the incidents were released to journalists at a press conference held by UNSCOM Chairman Richard Butler and nine weapons experts who head the staffs dealing with missiles, chemical weapons, biological weapons, and Iraq's so-called "concealment mechanism." Iraq has admitted it had a concealment mechanism, "in other words we're not making it up," Butler said of the issue which has been a major source of contention between UNSCOM and Iraq. UNSCOM deputy chairman Charles Duelfer said that it has been clear to the commission that "Iraq took a decision early in 1991 to both provide some information to (UNSCOM) as well as to retain some information and prohibited items. This was the beginning, it turns out, of what we now term a concealment mechanism or system." Iraq has acknowledged that the activities took place, but insists that they stopped in 1995 when General Hussein Kamal defected, assigning all responsibility for these actions to Hussein Kamal. "The problem is that we have evidence that it continues to exist and continues to operate," Duelfer said. He stated that UNSCOM has collected evidence showing that concealment has taken place, that it was highly organized, and it involves the Iraqi intelligence organization, a special security organization, and the special Republican Guard as well as the office of President Saddam Hussein. Since March 1996, UNSCOM has focused a portion of their inspections on the concealment regime, visiting a total of 63 sites they considered as part of the network used to hide either weapons parts or documents. UNSCOM inspectors were delayed at 38 of them and blocked at 14. "The rate is 83 percent (of the inspections) were either significantly delayed or blocked entirely," Duelfer said. Iraq uses the notification times for inspections, "heavy duty surveillance" of all UNSCOM activities and members, and rapid reaction to move items or to take actions which will prohibit the inspectors from finding the materials they are looking for, Duelfer said. "The Iraqis are very, very good. They are good analysts and there are a lot of them involved in this process. There are many thousands of people in Iraqi security organizations. There aren't so many of us," he said. Duelfer said that while inspectors are conducting an inspection on the ground at one location, UNSCOM uses the particular capabilities of the U-2 surveillance plane -- hovering over an area for an extended period, watching a wide area, and rapid photography -- to watch reactions at both the site they are inspecting as well as in other areas nearby. "We have seen a repeated pattern ... where an inspection will be delayed or blocked and then we will see convoy movement in a related facility in a rapid-reaction type basis," he said. "We can't get access to these vehicles, so we can't tell you for sure what is in them. We have evidence that says in those vehicles are prohibited items," Duelfer said. Both Duelfer and Butler stressed that UNSCOM understands that the inspectors are going to security sensitive buildings which have legitimate purposes for Iraqi national security and Iraqi international security. While decisions to inspect the buildings are very politically sensitive, Butler said that UNSCOM "has no choice but to continue" those inspections if the commission ever hopes to certify to the Security Council that all of Iraq's banned weapons and programs are destroyed.
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