Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

 

                     Letter dated 16 May 2002 from the Permanent Representative of Iraq to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

 

 

           On instructions from my Government, I have the honour to transmit to you herewith a letter dated 15 May 2002 from Mr. Naji Sabri, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Iraq. Appended to the Minister's letter is a table showing the violations of Iraq's international boundaries that were committed by United States and British warplanes flying across the demilitarized zone monitored by the United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM) in the period from 6 April and 3 May 2002.

           The Minister urges you to instruct UNIKOM to perform its duties in full, to report these violations to the Security Council through you as soon as they occur and to specify the number and nationality of the warplanes that violate the demilitarized zone, given that such violations constitute State terrorism and wanton aggression against the people, sovereignty and territory of Iraq, as well as against United Nations peacekeeping operations. He further asks for the Security Council to be alerted to its responsibility to halt this aggression and to hold its perpetrators accountable for it under international law.

           I should be grateful if you would have the present letter and its annex circulated as a document of the Security Council.

 

(Signed) Mohammed A. Aldouri
Permanent Representative

 

 

 

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                     Annex to the letter dated 16 May 2002 from the Permanent Representative of Iraq to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

 

 

           Further to our letter dated 18 April 2002 (S/2002/472, annex), I should like to inform you that in the period from 6 April to 3 May 2002 United States and British warplanes flying from bases in Kuwait, from Kuwait's airspace and territorial waters and by way of the demilitarized zone monitored by the United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM) committed 457 violations of our international boundaries. As shown in the table appended to this letter, the relevant Iraqi agencies have determined that the violations committed were as follows:

1.        Armed aerial activity by the United States and the United Kingdom, violating our international boundaries from Kuwait, from Kuwait's airspace and territorial waters and by way of the demilitarized zone, comprised 457 armed sorties in the Dhi Qar, Muthanna, Basrah, Maysan and Qadisiyah governorates.

2.        Our technical systems identified the aircraft violating Iraq's airspace on a daily basis as American F-14s, F-15s, F-16s and F-18s and British Tornadoes.

3.        An AWACS aircraft operating inside Saudi airspace and an E-2C aircraft operating inside Kuwaiti airspace provided support to all of the United States and British aircraft that carried out armed and hostile sorties, violating Iraq's airspace by way of the demilitarized zone.

4.        Between 6 April and 3 May 2002, a total of five remotely piloted aircraft violated Iraq's airspace from United States and British bases in Kuwait, from Kuwait's airspace and territorial waters and by way of the demilitarized zone.

           All of the violations in question were committed by way of the demilitarized zone in which UNIKOM is stationed. One of UNIKOM's primary responsibilities is to monitor such hostile military operations and to report them and endeavour to halt them immediately.

           UNIKOM has detected many of these violations, and in its report for the period 25 September 2001 to 20 March 2002 (S/2002/323) it notes 421 violations and states that some of the United States aircraft that committed them were F-18s and A-10s. The number of United States and British aircraft violating the demilitarized zone that is reported by UNIKOM is, however, much lower than the actual number of 935 reported by the Iraqi authorities concerned. We urge the United Nations Secretariat to provide UNIKOM with systems capable of detecting all of the violations so that it can notify the Security Council to take the necessary measures to halt these infringements forthwith. In another respect, even if UNIKOM did not have the systems needed to identify the type and nationality of these aircraft, the fact that they come from the direction of Kuwait confirms that they are those of the United States and the United Kingdom. Your report on UNIKOM for the period from 28 March to 4 September 2001 (S/2001/913) indicates as much, and paragraph 6 states that "[it should be noted] that the mission's inability to identify the States responsible for conducting such flights is in no way to be understood as condoning them". You also state in the report that the United States and the United Kingdom have acknowledged that they are continuing to enforce a no-flight zone in southern Iraq.

           I accordingly urge you once more to instruct UNIKOM to perform its duties in full, to report these violations to the Security Council through you as soon as they occur and to specify the number and type of United States and British warplanes that violate the demilitarized zone and commit aggression against Iraq, given that this constitutes State terrorism and wanton aggression against Iraq and against its people, its sovereignty and its territorial integrity, as well as against United Nations peacekeeping operations. I also ask you to alert the Security Council to its responsibility to halt this aggression and ensure that its perpetrators are held fully accountable for it under international law.

 

(Signed) Naji Sabri
Minister for Foreign Affairs

 

Enclosure

 

                     Hostile aerial activity violating Iraq's international boundaries from Kuwait and by way of the demilitarized zone,
6 April-3 May 2002

 

 

Date	From	Time	Type	Armed sorties	Altitude (metres)	Speed (km/h)	Areas overflown
6 April- 3 May	Kuwait	0730-1830	F-14, F-15, F-16, F-18, drone	457, including 5 drones	8,000-11,000	240-780	Basrah, Busayyah, Salman, Artawi, Lasaf, Qurnah, Samawah, Ashbajah, Jalibah, Nasiriyah, Shatrah