09 January 2003
Iraq in "Further Material Breach" of U.N. Resolution, U.S. Says
(U.N. inspectors: no "smoking gun," but no help from Iraq) (1380) By Judy Aita Washington File Staff Writer United Nations -- Iraq's failure to answer any of the outstanding questions on its weapons of mass destruction programs or pro-actively cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors "represents a deliberate attempt to deceive and constitutes a further material breach" of U.N. Security Council resolutions, the United States said January 9. Emerging from a private Security Council meeting with the chief U.N. weapons inspectors, U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said that "on the basis of both our own review of Iraq's declaration and the first few weeks of inspections, there is still no evidence Iraq has changed its approach from one of deceit to a genuine attempt to be forthcoming in meeting the council's demand that it disarm." "It is incumbent upon Iraq to cooperate fully and pro-actively as soon as possible with the inspection regime. ... For it not to do so constitutes the loss of a very, very important opportunity to resolve this matter by peaceful means. And if it is not resolved by peaceful means, the responsibility will fall fully upon the shoulders of Iraq," Negroponte said. The declaration "represents a deliberate effort to deceive by material omissions that, in our view, constitute a further material breach," Negroponte said, repeating the charge he made December 19 after the council's first review of Iraq's weapons declaration. Negroponte said that analysis of Arabic portions of the declaration conclude that they "contain no new information and provide no answers to the questions that have been raised" and "consist largely of recycled information from earlier declarations." "We do not believe this pattern is accidental, nor do we believe that it is new," the ambassador said. "Iraq's actions over the past six weeks do not constitute active cooperation," he said. The briefing was the second in a series scheduled over several months since Iraq turned over the 12,000-page final declaration of its weapons programs to the U.N. Monitoring and Verification Commission (UNMOVIC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on December 8. UNMOVIC Executive Chairman Hans Blix told the council that during the first month of inspections U.N. weapons experts had not found any "smoking gun" or been denied access to any facility, but he pointed out that if they had, he would have reported immediately to the council, not waiting for a scheduled session. "The inspections are covering ever-wider areas and ever-more sites in Iraq," Blix told journalists after the meeting. "We have not found any smoking gun, however, we are getting more and more information and better knowledge about the situation; and ... the declaration, regrettably, has not helped very much to clarify any question marks of the past." The declaration "didn't answer the questions that were put already in '90, '91 [and in] '99 by the Amorim Report," Blix said. "The Iraqis could have looked at those questions and answered more -- answered better. So we are not satisfied." During the private meeting Blix told the council that "in their very active media exposure, Iraqi officials have sought to construe the prompt access which has been given to inspection teams and the fact that no weapons of mass destruction or other proscribed items have been found as confirmation of their assertion that there are no weapons of mass destruction or other proscribed items in Iraq. The matter is not, of course, that simple," according to a text of Blix's remarks released by the U.N. "The absence of 'smoking guns' and the prompt access which we have had so far, and which is most welcome, is no guarantee that prohibited stocks or activities could not exist at other sites, whether above ground, underground or in mobile units," he said. "The prompt access/open doors policy that has been pursued so far by Iraq vis-a-vis the inspectors is an indispensable element of transparency in a process that aims at securing disarmament by peaceful means. However, prompt access is by no means sufficient to give confidence that nothing is hidden in a large country with an earlier record of avoiding disclosures," Blix told the council. "Iraq is very familiar with the fact that only declarations supported by evidence will give confidence about the elimination of weapons. In this respect we have not so far made progress," he said. Blix said that a month of examination has shown the declaration "rich in volume but poor in new information about weapons issues and practically devoid of new evidence." "If evidence is not presented which gives a high degree of assurance (that the banned weapons have been eliminated) there is no way the inspectors can close a file by simply invoking a precept that Iraq cannot prove the negative," he said. Both Blix and IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said that they need more "pro-active support" from Iraq. "We both reported that we are inching forward with implementation of our task," ElBaradei told journalists outside the council chambers. "We are getting access to all the sites, however, both of us also indicated that we need more pro-active support on the part of Iraq to be able to more quickly implement our mandate." The senior inspectors said that they did not get a comprehensive list of scientists involved in Iraq's weapons programs nor have they been able to conduct interviews in Iraq in private. Iraq has also not produced convincing evidence on the weapons destroyed without U.N. supervision during the 1990s. Iraq's list of experts "even failed to comprise a number of names that we have from the UNSCOM (UNMOVIC's predecessor U.N. inspection regime) archives which should have been there," ElBaradei said. "So it was not an adequate list." Blix told the council that "we do not feel that the Iraqi side has made a serious effort to respond to the request we made" for the list of scientists. A growing issue is under what conditions U.N. weapons inspectors are able to interview Iraqi officials, civilians or scientists. The chief inspectors said that arrangements are being finalized so that interviews can be conducted outside the country. Blix said that the interviews conducted so far have been in the presence of Iraqi "minders," but have not been useless. "However, Iraq is a totalitarian country and we do not want to have interviews where people are intimidated," he said. Blix said he intends to exercise his option and ask for private interviews in Baghdad next week. ElBaradei added that "we were not able to have interviews in Iraq in private and that does not indicate the pro-active cooperation we expect from Iraq." "I made it clear ... that if Iraq is willing to show proactive cooperation, we should be allowed to do private interviews inside Iraq," ElBaradei said. Blix and ElBaradei will be in Iraq January 19 and 20 at the request of Iraq to discuss the inspections. Council President Jean-Marc de la Sabliere of France said that the council "reiterated their full support for the work and action of Dr. Blix and Dr. ElBaradei and to the continuation of inspection activities of UNMOVIC and IAEA pursuant to resolution 1441 in order to achieve the disarmament of Iraq." British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock noted that "what I would call passive cooperation of Iraq has been good in terms of access and other procedural issues but there is no doubt from the flavor of their presentations the proactive cooperation on substance from Iraq has not been forthcoming." "Iraq is missing an important opportunity to clear up the remaining questions which the declaration has failed to do and a number of members of the council were worried ... by Iraq missing that opportunity," Greenstock said. "As the days go by, Iraq's failure to cooperate will become an increasingly serous matter," he said. UNMOVIC currently has about 100 inspectors and 58 support staff in Iraq along with 49 air crew for the fixed wing and helicopter operations. From the beginning of December to January 8, there have been 150 inspections of 127 sites. (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
