17 April 1998
IRAQ STILL FAR FROM SATISFYING WEAPONS INSPECTORS
(UNSCOM report critical of Iraqi cooperation) (1200) By Judy Aita USIA United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- The head of the Special Commission overseeing the destruction of Iraqi weapons (UNSCOM) told the Security Council April 17 that Iraq is no closer to providing U.N. weapons experts with the data they need to certify Iraq is free of the banned weapons than it was six months ago. In his semi-annual report to the Security Council, UNSCOM Chairman Richard Butler said "Iraq's claim, uttered repeatedly and sometimes stridently during (the past six months) -- to the effect that it is now absolutely free of any prohibited weapons and the equipment used to make them -- is a claim which most would prefer to be true but which has not been able to be verified." "The commission's mandate does not permit it to accept disarmament by declaration alone," he said. Butler said "Iraq has essentially failed" to provide the information needed to fill the gaps in the chemical and biological weapons programs, nor has it provided new information to help account for propellants and other materials for the banned ballistic missiles. Iraq's "consistent refusal" to provide UNSCOM with the information and materials needed to verify its claim that it has no more banned weapons makes it impossible for UNSCOM to declare that Iraq is in full compliance with the Security Council's cease-fire demands. In the meantime, Iraq tried to shift the emphasis from the commission's work to a set of technical evaluation meetings (TEMs) in hopes that the international experts at those sessions would determine that Iraq has provided all the information needed on chemical and biological weapons and ballistic missiles to certify that Iraq has met the cease-fire demands and have sanctions lifted. The TEMs, however, upheld UNSCOM's assertions that the data Iraq has provided is incomplete. Butler pointed out in his report that "first not only did the (TEM) process fail to improve the commission's ability to verify positively Iraq's claims about its prohibited weapons status but, in each case, the process indicated further areas of lack of clarity and uncertainty and the need for further work in the field rather than at a conference table." "Secondly, the (technical evaluation meetings) have become an extremely time-consuming process for the commission and have slowed down and, in some cases, led to the postponement of important field work," he added. UNSCOM "has striven to improve the situation by a range of actions, including the new TEMs process but, unfortunately, Iraq has so far failed to deliver what is required to verify its claim, even though it has been asked for this help repeatedly and has promised to give it," Butler said. During the six-month period under review, the most serious confrontation between the U.N. and Iraq on the weapons inspections occurred over UNSCOM access to the presidential and sensitive sites, prompting a military build-up in the gulf. Military strikes were averted by a special mission by the secretary general in talks with President Saddam Hussein. Butler mentioned that although the initial inspection of the eight so-called presidential sites was completed satisfactorily, there appeared to be differences on whether Iraq would allow UNSCOM to have access over the long-term as spelled out in the memorandum of understanding signed by Secretary General Kofi Annan and Iraq in February. The details of that mission were the subject of a separate report to the council in April as well. The situation with Iraq's ballistic missiles is complicated by the fact that Baghdad claims it unilaterally destroyed some two-thirds of its operational missile force, including missiles, launchers, warheads, and propellants, Butler said. In the past six months, there has been no substantive progress on accounting for missile propellants and no satisfactory balancing of the Iraqi-made missiles and components with what Baghdad has claimed to have unilaterally destroyed. While it is clear that Iraq did destroy some weapons, "Iraq's refusal to provide adequate and verifiable details" of the destruction to the U.N. experts has made it impossible for the experts to verify all of Iraq's claims, he said. Iraq has continued to develop the Al Samoud missile, whose maximum range is close to 150 kilometers (the limit allowed Iraq on ballistic missiles), using non-Iraqi made components, including imported Volga surface-to-air missiles, Butler reported. The February technical evaluation meeting (TEM) on the chemical warfare agent VX determined that Iraq has not given a full disclosure on its VX capabilities. The TEM concluded that "Iraq was capable of producing VX and the retention of a VX capability by Iraq cannot be excluded," Butler said. The long-term monitoring teams based in Iraq "continue to experience varying levels of cooperation," Butler also said. While support at the working level is "generally satisfactory," he said, there continue to be incidents of non-compliance, such as late or incorrect declarations, movement of tagged equipment without proper notification, lack of access to sites and rooms, and interference in inspections by Iraqi personnel. UNSCOM is concerned that significant quantities of 155 mm rounds of special munitions for chemical and biological weapons are unaccounted for. "This has acquired additional importance in the light of the recent analysis of four intact 155 mm shells filled with mustard (gas) of the highest quality (purity of 94 to 97 percent) even after seven years of exposure to extreme climatic conditions," he said. That discovery was contrary to Iraq's claims that its chemical weapons would have disintegrated and be useless over time, Butler pointed out. "Clearly, these Iraqi munitions could be stored for decades without any loss of quality." If Iraq would provide verifiable data on chemical weapons, the UNSCOM chairman said, that would immensely speed up clarification of outstanding issues but "it has not done so." A technical evaluation meeting on biological weapons in March 1998 backed up earlier determinations that Iraq's declarations to UNSCOM were "incomplete, inadequate and technically flawed." Butler pointed out that in March experts found in Iraq a 1994 document indicating the existence of a program for the manufacture of nozzles for spray dryers to be delivered to Al Hakam, Iraq's principal biological weapons production facility. In addition, in September 1997, UNSCOM discovered a set of documents relating to 1995 discussions between Iraq and a potential supplier of "a single-cell protein facility," whose potential for use in manufacturing biological warfare agents "is beyond question," he said. Butler reported that on the biological weapons program, Iraq has provided a selected and incomplete history, given little information on organization arrangements, not provided information on the acquisition of supplies, given minimal reports on research and development, and provided unreliable production and filing of munitions figures. Contrary to the demands of the Security Council and it's own promises, Iraq still refuses to allow UNSCOM's fix-wing planes to land at Rasheed Air Base and the Basrah international airport, the UNSCOM chairman noted. The council is expected to discuss the report the week of April 20. (For more information on this subject, contact our special Iraq website at: http://www.usia.gov/iraq)
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