03 June 1998
UNSCOM BRIEFING SHATTERS IRAQI CREDIBILITY, RICHARDSON SAYS
(UN arms experts set "roadmap" for Iraqi compliance) (700) By Judy Aita USIA United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- A detailed technical briefing by the UN weapons inspectors on what Iraq has to do before sanctions can be lifted "dealt a devastating blow" to Iraq's credibility, US Ambassador Bill Richardson said June 3. Ambassador Richard Butler, chairman of the Special Commission overseeing the destruction of Iraqi weapons (UNSCOM) and chemical, biological and ballistic weapons experts on his team were scheduled to brief the Security Council and later Iraqi officials outlining a "roadmap" on what remains to be done in the weapons area in order for Baghdad to fully comply with the disarmament requirements of the Gulf war cease-fire resolution. After more than five hours of meetings, the council scheduled a second session with UNSCOM for June 4. Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf met with council members on June 2 in an attempt to convince them that his government had satisfied the requirements and destroyed all its chemical, biological, nuclear, and ballistic weapons and their programs. Emerging from the closed session, US Ambassador Bill Richardson said that "UNSCOM has dealt a devastating blow to Iraq's credibility." UNSCOM produced documents, charts, and catalogued the gaps and inconsistencies in Iraqi claims that it had fulfilled its disarmament obligations, as well as documented Iraq's "pattern of concealment ... in the missile and the chemical and the biological area," Richardson said. "There are some very vivid photographs, documentation, charts of Iraqi concealment and until these questions are answered and these issues are settled ... sanctions are not near being lifted," he added. "Iraq, if it wants sanctions lifted, has a lot of progress to make," the US ambassador said. Richardson acknowledged that Iraq had made "some progress" in allowing UN weapons inspectors access to all sites in Iraq, including so-called presidential sites and in satisfying the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on nuclear weapons programs. Nevertheless, the ambassador said, Iraq has "a long ways to go to comply with Security Council resolutions and mandates." "UNSCOM has brought forth a series of very, very strong charges against Iraq's credibility that Iraq must answer" regarding patterns of concealment, gaps and inconsistencies in records dating from 1991 through 1995 and into the present, Richardson said. He used as an example Iraq's concealment of the chemical warfare agent VX production equipment and said there was "disturbing information" about missile propellants as well. "Iraq just has a lot of explaining to do ... I think Iraq had a bad day here," Richardson said. British Ambassador Sir John Weston also highlighted problems with unanswered questions on Iraq's missile program and accounting for warheads, propellants, and production capabilities. The British ambassador said that UNSCOM's "workmanlike approach" and visual materials helped to clarify in the minds of members of the council the technical basis for UNSCOM's determination that Iraq had not completed its disarmament obligations. In his semi-annual report to the council released in April, Butler said 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. Butler said that "Iraq has essentially failed" to provide the information needed to fill the gaps in the chemical and biological weapons programs, nor provided new information to help account for propellants and other materials for the banned ballistic missiles. 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 had 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, Butler said in the semi-annual report. (For more information on this subject, contact our special Iraq website at: http://www.usia.gov/iraq)
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