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Tracking Inspections: 11 DECEMBER 2002

UNMOVIC released details of inspections carried out on 11 December by it and the IAEA. According to a press briefing posted on the UNMOVIC website (http://www.un.org/depts/unmovic/), UNMOVIC visited the Al-Fatah factory, which is located northwest of Baghdad and belongs to the Al-Karamah State Company. The factory was opened in 1999 and remains under construction. "The site is concerned principally with the manufacture of mechanical parts for the guidance and control system of the Al-Samud ballistic missile, as well as parts of the engine and airframe," the UNMOVIC report stated. "The factory also manufactures components for the control system of the T-72 tank and for the shoulder-launched Saddam's Arrow surface-to-air missile." A second UNMOVIC team visited the Al-Razi Research Center, located in Al-America, 25 kilometers west of Baghdad, which produces "small amounts of diagnostic reagents for a limited number of human and animal diseases." Incidentally, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said that the Al-Razi center is located in the Abu Ghurayb area north of Baghdad. The ministry noted in its daily briefing that the center belongs to the Ministry of Industry and Minerals and "specializes in carrying out research on medical diagnosis equipment and producing pills for testing sensitivity to antibiotics, solutions, and tinctures," INA reported on 12 December.

According to the UNMOVIC website, the IAEA completed inspections at two sites and visited four additional sites on 11 December. IAEA teams completed inventory of the nuclear materials stored at the Al-Tuwaythah site, as well as at the uranium-extraction plant at Al-Qa'im (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 December 2002). The Iraqi Foreign Ministry reported that during the visit to the State Phosphate Company (Al-Qa'im), the IAEA teams inquired about concentrated and diluted sulfuric acid, the site's Freon gas project, and fertilizers. They also took soil, grass, solid material, and water samples from the site and conducted a radiation survey.

A team also visited the Ibn Sina Company, which lies 40 kilometers north of Baghdad. UNMOVIC reports that this site was previously known as Tarmiyah and was the site of a uranium-enrichment plant that was destroyed by coalition forces in 1991. There are reportedly "dual-use activities" at the site. The Iraqi Foreign Ministry reported on 12 December that the Ibn Sina company "specializes in industrial chemical research and the production of the organic and non-organic raw materials needed by civil industries in Iraq.... It also carries out various chemical tests." The inspectors also visited the Al-Amal liquid-nitrogen plant located 10 kilometers from the Ibn Sina Company. In addition, inspectors visited the Saddam GE and Al-Amir factories, which are located approximately 120 kilometers west of Baghdad. The two facilities provide "support to the military in the field of armaments," according to UNMOVIC. The Iraqi Foreign Ministry reported on 12 December that UNSCOM teams visited the Al-Amir factory several times. "The factory specializes in heavy mechanical operation for public services. It does not carry out any activity for missiles with allowable ranges that are covered under the monitoring. But it was included under the monitoring regime due to its ability to make missile parts, according to the opinion of UNSCOM."

Copyright (c) 2003. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org