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15 January 1998

UNSCOM CHAIRMAN BUTLER LEAVES FOR BAGHDAD

(U.N. says evidence exists of Iraqi biological experiments on dogs)
(400)
By Judy Aita
USIA United Nations Correspondent
United Nations -- The head of the U.N. Special Commission overseeing
the destruction of Iraqi weapons (UNSCOM) January 15 left U.N.
headquarters for meetings with senior Iraqi officials in Baghdad early
next week, a U.N. spokesman said.
UNSCOM Chairman Ambassador Richard Butler will meet first with French
officials before proceeding to Baghdad, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard
said. Butler will meet with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz on
January 19 and 20 "to discuss policy questions, in particular the
question of access." He's expected to leave Baghdad on the morning of
January 21 and be back in New York January 22.
The inspection team headed by UNSCOM inspector Scott Ritter, the
American with whom Iraq refuses to cooperate, did not attempt to go on
mission January 15, Eckhard also said. Ritter is waiting for further
instructions from Butler before attempting any new inspections.
"Other teams covering chemical, nuclear, and biological weapons, as
well as missiles, did inspections without any hitches," Eckhard said.
On January 14, Butler gave to the Security Council a detailed
composition of the UNSCOM team which attempted to undertake
inspections under Ritter's direction but was blocked by Iraq on
January 12. That team consisted of 44 persons, 28 of whom were
classified as inspectors, the spokesman said.
Of the 28 inspectors, 10 were Americans, five were Britons, three
French, two Austrian, and the remaining eight came from Bosnia,
Brazil, Finland, Germany, India, Ireland, Sweden, and Switzerland,
Eckhard said.
Asked about allegations of Iraqi biological weapons experiments on
humans, Eckhard said that "the photograph that was referred to by one
American television network is not, in the view of UNSCOM, evidence of
experimentation on humans."
The photograph "has not been made public," the U.N. spokesman said.
"As a matter of policy, UNSCOM does not go public with any materials
they get from Iraq. As far as the photograph goes, UNSCOM does not
consider it evidence of experiments on humans."
"There was, as well, a newspaper report of experiments on dogs,"
Eckhard said. "There were in fact video tapes of such experiments, but
again these were not made public."
"But, in fact, there does seem to have been experimentation on dogs,"
he said.