24 June 1998
UNSCOM CHIEF SAYS IRAQ PUT CHEMICAL WEAPONS IN WARHEADS
(Richard Butler reports on results of lab tests) (880) By Judy Aita USIA United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- The head of the UN Special Commission overseeing the destruction of Iraqi weapons (UNSCOM) told the Security Council June 24 that UNSCOM has "utterly, unambiguous" test results showing that Iraq put VX nerve gas in missile warheads. UNSCOM Chairman Richard Butler told journalists after a private meeting with the Council that he discussed "the laboratory findings on missile warhead remnants in which the degraded remnants of the chemical VX has been detected." "That is very serious because Iraq has always insisted that it never weaponized VX," Butler said. "It has admitted to the production of that nerve agent but it stated that it never put it in weapons. Now these findings show that they did weaponize it; they put it in missile warheads." Butler said that he will be discussing the findings with Iraqi officials in Baghdad in July to find out "how that could have been and what it means for the overall status of its production of the nerve agent VX." UNSCOM wants "to know the answer to these questions: How much substance did they make. What did they do with it? Where is it now?" he said. "We want to work with Iraq on this with good will and get to the bottom of this....We have findings that are unambiguous. They contradict what Iraq has always claimed: namely, that it never put this substance into weapons," the UNSCOM chairman said. Butler met with the Council to discuss his recent visit to Baghdad during which UNSCOM and Iraqi officials agreed to a work program for the next two months. On June 25 the Council will be conducting its 60-day sanctions review during which it considers Butler's report on Iraq's progress toward disarmament. US Ambassador Bill Richardson said after the meeting that the UNSCOM report "showed Iraqi progress on just one front -- that is that they've agreed to a plan of work for the next two months. We saw little progress, little progress in the areas of eliminating concealment, in the area of providing documents. We saw little progress on missiles, on biological and chemical weapons." Richardson added that "maybe there's a little better spirit and atmosphere of cooperation between UNSCOM and Iraq, but little in the way of facts and providing information and answering questions." "Once again a case has not been made to show there has been improvement in the eyes of the American delegation," the US Ambassador to the UN said. Controversy surrounded the UNSCOM revelations on the VX missile warheads because the information appeared in the US newspaper The Washington Post before the data was given to Council members or otherwise made public by UNSCOM. The tests were conducted for UNSCOM by a US Army laboratory at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. Both Butler and Richardson expressed regret that the information was passed to the newspaper and said that neither UNSCOM personnel nor Clinton Administration officials were responsible for the leak. Butler said that he had "very discreetly" discussed the findings with Iraqi officials during his recent visit to Baghdad and had offered to have the tests done in laboratories in France and Switzerland as well. Nevertheless, the UNSCOM chairman said, "there is no doubt -- utterly unambiguous -- in the findings made in the laboratory at Edgewood that VX was present in some of those missile warhead remnants." "These degradation products could be from no other substance. Could there have been a mix-up? The answer is no," Butler said. "These are unique products. They were of VX. They were found in a munition, namely a missile warhead. That's weaponization," he said. "Whatever happens in those other laboratories will not invalidate what we found at Edgewood," Butler said. "Nothing will alter those findings, but in the spirit of cooperation we will re-run tests in other labs and see what they come up with." He added that the US Army laboratory is accredited to the Chemical Weapons Convention as a laboratory trusted to provide objective findings. The laboratory, Butler said, "has the highest possible professional reputation." Richardson said that the United States believes the laboratory results are "credible," but has "no problem" with samples being cross-tested in other countries. "The issue is that Iraq had VX nerve gas that it was weaponizing with VX nerve gas. That is what should be disturbing," Richardson said. British Ambassador Sir John Weston noted that "people feel let down by the fact that the scientific tests carried out on these fragments have produced an unambiguous scientific result which contradicts the assertions that were made in this building by Iraqi ministers only a few weeks ago." After the meeting Council President Antonio Montiero of Portugal did not comment on the test findings concentrating at the request of members on the "spirit of cooperation" between UNSCOM and Iraq. He said "the Security Council expressed the view that this new spirit of cooperation which has opened since the signature of the memorandum of understanding between the Secretary General and Iraq authorities last February ... will be pursued by Iraq and translated to full cooperation with UNSCOM to enable it to complete its task as soon as possible."
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