Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

                     Letter dated 12 June 2002 from the Permanent Representative of Iraq to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

 

 

           On instructions from my Government, I should like to transmit to you herewith a letter dated 11 June 2002 from Mr. Naji Sabri, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Iraq, concerning violations of the demilitarized zone monitored by the United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM) which have been committed by United States and British warplanes flying from bases in Kuwait, together with a table showing those violations for the period from 4 to 31 May 2002.

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

 

 

(Signed) Mohammed A. Aldouri
Ambassador
Permanent Representative

                     Annex to the letter dated 12 June 2002 from the Permanent Representative of Iraq to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary‑General

 

 

           Further to our letter of 16 May 2002 (S/2002/560, annex), I should like to inform you that during the period from 4 to 31 May 2002, United States and British warplanes committed 714 violations of Iraq's international boundaries from bases in Kuwait, from Kuwait's airspace and territorial waters and via the demilitarized zone monitored by the United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM). As shown in the table appended to this letter, the competent Iraqi authorities have determined that the violations committed were as follows:

1.        Armed aerial activity by the United States of America and the United Kingdom, involving violations of our international boundaries, from bases in Kuwait, from Kuwait's airspace and territorial waters and via the demilitarized zone, comprised 714 sorties in the following governorates: Dhi Qar, Muthanna, Basrah, Maysan and Qadisiyah.

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

4.        Between 4 and 31 May 2002, a total of four remotely piloted aircraft violated Iraq's airspace from United States and British bases in Kuwait, from Kuwait's airspace and territorial waters and via the demilitarized zone.

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

           UNIKOM has observed many such violations and mentioned them in its previous semi-annual report, though the number mentioned is far lower than the actual number observed by the Iraqi authorities and communicated periodically to the Secretary-General.

           One of the primary tasks of UNIKOM is to record such violations accurately, determining the aircraft type and nationality. For that reason we request the Secretariat to provide UNIKOM with adequate equipment to monitor all violations and report to the Security Council in order that it may take the necessary steps to stop those violations immediately. Moreover, even if UNIKOM did not have equipment with which to ascertain the type and nationality of such aircraft, the fact that they come from Kuwait confirms that they are American and British. Your semi-annual report to the Security Council covering the period from 28 March to 24 September 2001 (S/2001/913) mentions this. Indeed, paragraph 6 of that report states that the inability of UNIKOM to identify the States responsible for conducting those sorties should not be taken to mean that it condones them. You also refer in that report to the acknowledgement by the United States and the United Kingdom that they continue to impose a no-flight zone in southern Iraq.

           I therefore request you once more to instruct UNIKOM to perform its duties in full, to report these violations to the Security Council through you immediately upon their occurrence and to determine the number and type of the American and British warplanes that violate the demilitarized zone and the Security Council resolutions whereby that zone was created, engaging in hostilities against Iraq, given that such acts constitute State terrorism and flagrant aggression against Iraq and against its people, its sovereignty and its territory, as well as against United Nations peacekeeping operations. I further request you to remind the Security Council of its responsibility to halt the aggression and hold the aggressors 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 via the demilitarized zone, 4-31 May 2002

 

 

 

Date	From	Time	Type	Armed sorties	Altitude (metres)	Speed (km/h)	Areas overflown
4-31 May 2002	Kuwait	0005-2310	F-14, F-15, F‑16, F-18, drone	714 (including 4 drones)	8,000-10,000	240-780	Basrah, Busayyah, Salman, Artawi, Lasaf, Qurnah, Ashbajah, Jalibah, Nasiriyah, Shatrah, Nukhayb, Qal`at Salih, Umm Qasr