28 October 1999
Security Council Must Scrutinize Oil-For-Food Purchases, U.S. Says
(Burleigh: Money must go to help Iraqi people, not weapons program) (1260) By Judy Aita Washington File United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- The United States October 28 appealed to Security Council members to uphold their responsibilities to have an oil-for-food program that meets the basic needs of the Iraqi people but also to stop Iraq from reacquiring weapons of mass destruction. U.S. Ambassador Peter Burleigh said that the United States puts so-called "holds" on oil-for-food contracts for a variety of reasons, first and foremost on dual use items -- those items that can be used both for civilian or military purposes, specifically with regard to weapons of mass destruction. "The world knows that Iraq has a demonstrated commitment to both sustaining and, if possible, rebuilding its weapons of mass destruction capabilities," Burleigh pointed out. "We are very concerned about that and we go over every contract with that question in mind," the ambassador told journalists after a private Security Council meeting on the oil-for-food program. "We balance that with our deep concern about the humanitarian interests of the Iraqi people," he added. Burleigh, the deputy U.S. representative to the council, said he "made an appeal to council members that everyone on the council has the responsibility to do both -- that is to have a program that meets the humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people -- which are real." "Secondly, but not secondarily, at the same time maintain the purpose of the sanctions and the purpose of the review ... (and) to the extent possible to stop any import into Iraq of something that would help their weapons of mass destruction program," the ambassador said. The current oil-for-food program allows Iraq to sell $5,260 million worth of oil every six months under strict U.N. supervision with the proceeds going to buy humanitarian supplies for Iraqi civilians, provide funds for a U.N. administered program for the northern Kurdish provinces, pay compensation claims, and help finance weapons inspections. The United States and Britain have been criticized for increasing the number of "holds" on contracts for goods Iraq wants to purchase under the oil-for food program. All 15 countries who are members of the Security Council are also members of the Iraqi Sanctions Committee and review the pending contracts. Secretary General Kofi Annan said October 25 that 572 contracts worth about $700 million were on hold awaiting approval. The Security Council also has been discussing a resolution that would deal with the creation of an organization to replace the UN Special Commission overseeing the destruction of Iraqi weapons (UNSCOM) which was set up under the council's cease-fire resolution 687 at the end of the Gulf war in 1991 and the mandatory economic sanctions that have been in place since Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 and are linked to the weapons destruction. The draft resolution also deals with important questions regarding the "oil-for-food program," the outstanding issue of 600 Kuwaiti POWs who have never been accounted for and substantial missing property claims. One of the important parts of a new resolution, Burleigh said, will be a "new special commission, whatever it is called, that will have the same mandate as UNSCOM and IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency). Both of them monitored dual use items in Iraq for the council and reported back to the council if they found any discrepancies for the purpose stated for the dual use item." Iraq began severely interfering with UN weapons inspections in August 1998, finally forcing UN inspectors to withdraw completely in December 1998, precipitating U.S. and British bombing. UNSCOM has not been allowed back into Iraq since and weapons experts fear that Iraq has taken the opportunity presented by the lack of arms inspections to resume research and production of the banned weapons. U.S. officials say that Iraq's history of developing and using weapons of mass destruction, especially chemical and biological weapons, is such that Washington wants a very intrusive inspection system on the ground. Since the arms inspectors left Iraq last year, the United States has had to be especially careful when reviewing the contracts for supplies other than food and medicine. The weapons inspectors provided another level of assurance that the goods were not being diverted for military purposes, U.S. officials say. "We felt compelled to be even more rigorous in our reviews because UNSCOM was the organization under the import/export regime that was charged with spot checking items of dual use," one U.S. official noted. "UNSCOM left and it became much more difficult for us in good faith to approve ... items of a general dual use nature." At the same time, the complexity of the goods and the needs in Iraq have changed, adding to the technical review problems, the official pointed out. Contracts now include not only food, health and nutrition, which are the priority items, but items for electricity, water, sanitation, education, agriculture and oil spare parts. U.S. officials stress that 95 percent of the contracts that have been submitted, numbering in the thousands, have been approved. U.S. officials also point out that the United States and Britain are two of the few delegations on the council with the manpower and resources to check the contracts. France, China and Russia, three other countries on the council with the resources to thoroughly review the contracts, do not do so. The three, which all do business in Iraq, have also been pressing to ease sanctions before Iraqi disarmament is completed. Burleigh said the United States is "more than ready to work with the UN through the council and UN Office of Iraq Program to look at ways where there can be UN monitors on the ground in Iraq who could reassure the Security Council ... that it is in fact there for civilian purpose." Burleigh said the U.S. was also going to press the UN's Office of Iraq Program to ensure that the so-called "food basket" provided under the program meets the target of 2,400 calories a day as recommended by the UN. The current food basket is providing 2,100 calories per day. "We think they should go up to the recommended level," Burleigh said. "The overall value of the program -- $5.2 billion -- was based on the UN recommendation that they needed 2,400 calories each day. So we'd like to insist that be the case," the ambassador said. "Money is not a problem now," Burleigh pointed out. "There is going to be up to ($7,000 million) in this 6th phase. They bought up to $5,200 million and the council authorized them to use the money that had not been used in the previous phases so there is no excuse on the humanitarian front for not meeting these targets." "So we are expecting Iraq to do that," Burleigh said. The current 6th phase of the oil-for-food program will end on November 20 and Burleigh said the U.S. is prepared to consider allocating additional money in phase 7 for spare oil parts to help repair Iraq's oil industry so it can meet the production targets for the program. "In our view, as has been the case in the past, those spare parts have to be directly linked to the humanitarian purposes of the program," Burleigh said. On that basis the United States has supported $300 million for oil spare parts in the past three phases of the oil-for-food program. (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.)
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