EKEUS: IMPORTANT WORK AHEAD FOR U.N. COMMISSION ON IRAQI WEAPONS
Judy Aita USIA - 02 May 1997
United Nations -- Outlining the task of finding the whereabouts of
lethal biological weapons that may remain in Iraq, the head of the
Special Commission overseeing the destruction of Iraqi weapons
(UNSCOM) discussed his successes and disappointments May 1 as he
prepared to turn over the reins of the unique, ground-breaking arms
control operation to a successor.
After almost six years as head of UNSCOM, Ambassador Rolf Ekeus is
stepping down to return to the Swedish diplomatic service. He will be
replaced by Ambassador Richard Butler of Australia.
"There remains unfortunately some quantitatively small but
qualitatively highly significant items unaccounted for in Iraq," Ekeus
said at a press conference. "Iraq appears to have decided to try to
keep these capabilities and ... it is now time once and for all for
the Iraqi leadership to take a decision to give up these items."
Ekeus said he is leaving with "mixed feelings." The commission has
accomplished ground-breaking arms control work in identifying and
eliminating most of Iraq's chemical, biological, nuclear, and long
range missile programs and establishing a long-term monitoring and
verification program. But he said there is "professional
disappointment" that work still remains before the Security Council
can lift the oil embargo and ease other sanctions against Iraq.
"The Iraqi people are still a victim of a policy which makes it
impossible for the commission to reach a full clearing out of all
prohibited ... weapons of mass destruction, long range missiles, and
related means for production," he said.
Butler, who has been his country's chief U.N. envoy since 1992, was
appointed Australia's first ambassador for disarmament in 1983 when he
led the Australian delegation to the Conference on Disarmament in
Geneva. In November 1995 he was appointed convener of the Canberra
Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons and he played a key
role in the successful adoption of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
at U.N. headquarters last year.
U.S. Ambassador Bill Richardson welcomed Butler's appointment, calling
it "an excellent choice" and pledging the U.S. government's "fullest
cooperation."
"We have tremendous respect for Ambassador Butler's well-proven
talents and look forward to his continuing the very high standards of
integrity and skepticism that marked the tenure of Chairman Ekeus on
the commission," Richardson said in a statement released by the U.S.
Mission to the U.N.
"We recognize that Ambassador Butler will face an enormous task. Iraq
has still not made the political decision to cooperate with UNSCOM and
abandon its program for weapons of mass destruction. The commission
must, therefore, continue its vigorous efforts to uncover the truth,"
Richardson said.
Discussing what he called the "endurance test" between the U.N. and
Iraq over the elimination of the weapons programs, Ekeus said that his
major "misjudgment" during his tenure was in expecting Iraq to fully
cooperate with UNSCOM as spelled out in the cease-fire agreement.
When the operation began in April 1991, "we all expected that it was
purely technical work" since the Iraqi leadership would cooperate
because they would be anxious to begin exporting oil and return to a
normal economic situation, he said.
"What happened was the opposite," he said. "Iraq decided
systematically to mislead, conceal, and cheat in an effort to preserve
these capabilities. Obviously because they considered these
capabilities more important than ... considerable financial assets."
That is why commission officials "are not happy if we see statements
which indicate some hesitation (on the part of the international
community), because that will only encourage Iraq to delay its work
... and stay on the course of denials. That would never lead to a
solution for Iraq," Ekeus said.
"The best message we can send to Iraq is that this is a firm and
steady operation and it will outlast the resistance; and hope that
Iraq will decide to change its way," he said.
He said UNSCOM's early operations "were maybe a little optimistic"
because UNSCOM officials took "declarations given by Iraq by its
highest officials as correct and truthful. That may have delayed our
work somewhat."
Nevertheless, in its six years of operation the commission has
identified Iraq's major nuclear weapons development program and
accounted for "practically all of it," Ekeus said. Iraq's "large
capability" to conduct chemical warfare that included weapons,
munitions, along with production, research and development facilities
was "identified and thoroughly destroyed."
"A special, remarkable achievement" was the detection of a major
biological weapons program that "the international community knew
practically nothing about in 1991," he said. "The large production
capabilities have been destroyed" in 1996.
"The crowning achievement is the monitoring and verification system.
It is without precedent in arms control history," Ekeus said. "It is
backed up by an export/import control regime which I also think is
ground-breaking in its innovative character."
The monitoring regime has "state-of-the-art technology" that has never
been used before, he noted. If the monitoring is continued, "it will
be impossible for Iraq to continue its work to reestablish its
prohibitive programs -- once we manage to completely eradicate them --
without being detected."
But UNSCOM has not accounted for a large production program of the
biological warfare agent VX, which is "several times more lethal than
the four best-known nerve agents," Ekeus emphasized.
Iraq has also "admitted production of considerable amounts of
anthrax," Ekeus said, but UNSCOM analysis detected that Iraq has
"produced even more than admitted" and has the capability to dry that
anthrax for use as a biological warfare agent.
Even a small amount of the dried anthrax contains millions of lethal
doses, he pointed out. "One attack of a biological bomb successfully
delivered on a city would have the casualties corresponding to a
nuclear attack."
The biological weapons and military structure for delivering scud-type
missiles "are definite threats," he said, although as long as UNSCOM's
monitoring system is in place "we don't believe Iraq could activate
these capabilities without being detected."
Ekeus said that the missing biological agents is the reason UNSCOM
must press on and the Security Council must remain firm on sanctions.
"If you talk of humanitarian concerns" for Iraqi civilians suffering
under sanctions, he said, "our hearts must also go out to those
victims of such a biological attack. It is not humanitarian to say let
these weapons stay there and maybe be used."
"That, I think, is quite cruel," Ekeus said. "It is a very important
humanitarian dimension in the commission's work.... It is intolerable
that this capability would remain."
Praising the members of the Security Council for their "remarkable
stability and consistency," Ekeus said that "we all have humanitarian
concerns top up on our minds, but we also know, and the council knows,
the disastrous consequences for the security in the region if this
commission's work would fail."
Ekeus also pointed out that instead of dictating the cease-fire
conditions, the U.S.-led allied coalition that liberated Kuwait turned
over the cease-fire operation to the United Nations. "It was a unique
expression of confidence in the United Nations and its capabilities."
The Security Council was wise in mandating how the operation was to be
supervised and financed.
His small but effective operation is short on bureaucracy and heavy on
substance -- top weapons experts from major countries: the United
States, Russia, United Kingdom and France and Germany, Ekeus said. He
noted that while the commission wanted broad geographical
representation, UNSCOM was dealing with highly advanced weapons that
are either prohibited or come under a nonproliferation regime. "It
goes without saying that only a limited set of states are capable of
providing us with that expertise."
Ekeus said that although he had to spend time fund raising, "one of
the most difficult headaches," the council's decision not to fund
UNSCOM out of the regular U.N. budget turned out to UNSCOM's benefit.
In the current U.N. financial crisis, "I don't know if we would have
survived," he said.
He paid special tribute to Germany which kept UNSCOM's flights, both
helicopter and fixed wing, going without payment and to the U.S. which
provided a very costly U-2 operation based in Saudi Arabia without
payment. Generous cash contributions have come from the Gulf states
led by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and the United Kingdom as well, he
said.
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