28 September 1999
Former UNSCOM Chief Wants WMD Inspections Back in Iraq
(Butler tells Senate sanctions can be lifted only when Iraq complies) (580) By William B. Reinckens Washington File Correspondent Washington -- Former UNSCOM (United Nations Special Commission on Iraq) chief Richard Butler rejected the idea that the United Nations should lift economic sanctions on Iraq because Baghdad still refuses to cooperate with United Nations resolutions mandating inspections for weapons of mass destruction. Butler, an Australian diplomat now with the Council on Foreign Relations, testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee September 28. It has been a year since Iraq ended the UN inspections programs. Since then the UN Security Council has been unable to reach an agreement on reinstating an inspections and monitoring program in Iraq. This lack of unity in the Security Council has only worked to Iraq's advantage, Butler suggested. "I do not believe that Iraq would be able to continue to defy the UN Security Council for very long if the five permanent members were to stand together in insisting to Iraq that it return to compliance with the law," he said. "The key to sanctions relief has always been disarmament. The Saddam Hussein regime has refused to pick up that key and turn it," he said, noting that economic sanctions have always allowed for shipments of food and medicine to the Iraqi people under the $5.2 billion Oil-for-Food Program. Butler said the recent UNICEF report on the effects of sanctions on children in Iraq holds Iraqi President Saddam Hussein responsible for the suffering of Iraqi people. However, he did note that he would like to see more "targeted economic sanctions" be applied against the estimated $6 billion that Saddam Hussein is said to possess and against other Iraqi regime assets hidden in banks in Switzerland. Butler noted that it has been eight years since UN inspections programs for Iraq began. "In practical terms," he said, "this has meant that the job of disarming Iraq, which should have taken a year, is still not complete." After the Gulf War in 1991, Iraq was to disclose fully all nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and the means of manufacturing them. Baghdad was also prohibited from holding, acquiring or manufacturing missiles that could fly more that 150 kilometers. Instead of complying, Iraq embarked on a policy of making false declarations about its weapons and materials. It divided its illegal weapons in two, Butler said, one portion it revealed to the U.N. inspectors and the other it concealed. There are currently two competing plans that have been advanced by members of the Security Council to deal with Iraq's continuing lack of compliance. The Russian Plan, according to Butler, would "accept the Iraqi claim that it was disarmed and remove sanctions. In return Iraq would be obliged to accept an ongoing monitoring system." This plan has been supported at different times by China and, most recently, France. The other proposal -- one that has the support of the United States -- is a British-Netherlands plan that would suspend sanctions for renewable periods of six months, provided Iraq complies with all relevant Security Council resolutions and allows for ongoing monitoring. The British-Dutch plan would also control Iraqi proceeds, including its lucrative black market oil endeavors. Butler said his experience with the Iraqi regime, however, has led him to believe that Iraq would not comply with any arrangement that would bring weapons inspectors back into the country.
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