26 February 1998
DHANAPALA APPOINTED HEAD OF SPECIAL UNSCOM INSPECTION GROUP
(Butler says UN-Iraq Accord will strengthen UNSCOM) (1200) By Judy Aita USIA United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- An internationally known disarmament expert has been selected by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to head the new special group of diplomats and weapons inspectors that will visit Iraq's presidential sites. U.N. Undersecretary General Jayantha Dhanapala was named February 26 as the commissioner of the U.N. Special Commission overseeing the destruction of Iraqi weapons (UNSCOM) to head the special inspection group that will visit the so-called presidential sites in Iraq. UNSCOM's access to the sites, which had been previously off-limits to U.N. weapons inspectors, and the creation of the special group are both items that were included in the UN-Iraq Accord negotiated in Baghdad between Annan and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein over the weekend. UNSCOM Executive Chairman Richard Butler praised Dhanapala's appointment as "a gifted decision." He noted that he and the Sri Lankan diplomat have enjoyed a good working relationship for 30 years. "It's a fine appointment and I look forward to working with him," Butler said. Dhanapala, who was Sri Lankan Ambassador to the United States and Mexico 1995-1997, was appointed U.N. Undersecretary General for Disarmament Affairs in January. Throughout his diplomatic career Dhanapala has been closely involved in disarmament issues. He was president of the 1995 Review and Extension Conference of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty; Sri Lanka's representative to the U.N. Conference on Disarmament in Geneva from 1984 to 1987; Director of the Geneva-based U.N. Institute for Disarmament Research; and diplomat-in-residence at the Center for Non-Proliferation Studies of the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California. At the invitation of Australia, Dhanapala was a member of the Canberra Commission, a group of 17 international experts who published a report in 1996 on nuclear disarmament. He is also the fifteenth recipient of the "Jit" Trainor Award for Distinction in the Conduct of Diplomacy given by the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. During his career in the Foreign Service of Sri Lanka, Dhanapala also served in London, Beijing, Washington, New Delhi, and the United Nations. At a press conference February 26, Butler talked about the new memorandum of understanding between the U.N. and the Government of Iraq, calling it "a strong agreement" that will strengthen UNSCOM. He disagreed with analysts who say that the accord is the beginning of the end for UNSCOM. Butler urged journalists "not to look so much at the fine print, but at the thumb print." "The thumb prints on this agreement are those of the Secretary General of the United Nations and the President of Iraq with whom he consulted personally on this agreement," Butler said. The UNSCOM chairman said that he looks forward to implementing the agreement "as soon as possible and...to going out into the field and testing in practice what is written on paper." But he refused to give any indication when UNSCOM might mount an inspection of one of the eight presidential sites. "I earnestly hope that Iraq will give us the full cooperation that it is pledged to give in this agreement and, under those circumstance, I hope that we will be able to complete the disarmament portion and put all of what remains under long-term monitoring in a relatively short time," Butler said. The two-page accord, which was signed by Annan and Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz on February 23, reconfirms Iraq's acceptance of all Security Council resolutions, including the Gulf War cease-fire resolution (687); states Iraq's agreement to accord weapons inspectors "immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access" to all sites; and sets up special procedures for investigating the presidential sites. According to the accord, the Secretary General was to establish, in consultation with Butler, a special group of senior diplomats and experts drawn from UNSCOM and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). That group will be now be headed by Dhanapala. Butler said that he welcomed the accord as "strengthening UNSCOM in the conduct of its work in Iraq." He added that it will be "an additional resource which will now be put at our disposal to enable us to do the work in those designated sites within Iraq." The agreement gives UNSCOM access to sites that as recently as December 1997 Iraq said were "absolutely off limits," he noted. "First of all this memorandum was done at a very high political level and any reading of it that ignores that (point), I think, would make a serious mistake," he said. "Secondly -- at that high political level -- it gave expression to a fundamental commitment that is set forth in the resolutions of the Security Council, namely that UNSCOM must have immediate, unconditional, and unrestricted access to all sites in Iraq for the purpose of carrying out its mandate. The memorandum at the highest political level reaffirms and reiterates that commitment." Butler also sought to clarify misunderstandings on the presidential site inspections that have risen since the agreement was published. "I want to make clear that those arrangements are entirely satisfactory to me and the organization that I lead. They will give us access to the presidential sites in Iraq which have now been described accurately as a consequence of the work of the U.N. mapping team," he said. "With the establishment of a special inspection group within UNSCOM, to be led by a chief inspector of UNSCOM (and) to which diplomatic observers will be added -- to ensure concerns that Iraq has expressed and the Council has acknowledged on the particular dignity of those sites -- we will be able to do our work," Butler said. "I welcome very much, in addition, the appointment of a new commissioner of the special commission who will have particular responsibility for the work of inspection of those sites and who will work very closely with me," he said. Reporting and scientific analysis arising out of inspections of those sites will be conducted by UNSCOM, Butler said. The report then will go from Dhanapala to Butler, and be transmitted to the Security Council through the Secretary General as has been the practice in the past, he said. "These lines of authority and reporting are clear and I find them entirely satisfactory," the UNSCOM chairman said. Butler said press reports that he is leaving his position as UNSCOM chairman are inaccurate. "I'm happy with my job. I look forward to continuing to do the job to the best of my ability." Butler also sought to downplay Iraq's prior complaints about the behavior of U.N. weapons inspectors. "There've obviously been difficulties in the past. I don't want to dwell on them," he said. "I hope Iraq is ready to do the same. (The inspections) can best be carried out if done in courteous attitude with each other." The senior diplomats who will be appointed to accompany the weapons inspectors to presidential sites are not "chaperones," Butler said. They will be "diplomatic observers" that will ensure that both sides "not just UNSCOM but Iraq, too," will behave appropriately, he said.
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