IK/164
23 February 1994
THIRTEENTH CHEMICAL INSPECTION TEAM COMPLETES MISSION IN IRAQ
Operations Conducted from 1-11 February
The following has been received from the Special Commission set up under
Security Council resolution 687 (1991) in connection with the disposal of
Iraq's weapons of mass destruction:
The thirteenth chemical inspection team returned to New York after
conducting operations in Iraq from 1 to 11 February, concentrating its
activities on sites at which dual-purpose chemical production equipment was
located.
The team was comprised of 10 members, some of whom now serve with the
provisional technical secretariat of the nascent organization for the
prohibition of chemical weapons, which will come into being with the entry
into force of the Chemical Weapons Convention. Their participation greatly
assisted in the development of the monitoring and verification protocols for
the ongoing monitoring and verification of chemical facilities.
The team's principal tasks were: to complete a comprehensive inventory
of all the equipment at the sites visited; to tag dual-purpose equipment
pending a decision on whether to permit conversion or to destroy; to test the
concept of monitoring and verification protocols for chemical production
facilities; to assess, by examining the equipment concerned, Iraq's requests
that certain items of production equipment be converted for civil use rather
than be destroyed; to discuss with the Iraqi side details of its past chemical
weapons production programme in order to address areas where Iraq's earlier
declarations were inadequate; and to assess how and when the Chemical
Destruction Group at Al Muthanna should terminate its operations there.
The team visited the sites comprising the Muthanna State Establishment,
namely Al Muthanna, and Fallujahs I, II and III, and a site newly declared by
Iraq -- the Ibn al Baytar pharmaceutical facility. That facility, which is
(more)
- 2 - Press Release IK/164
23 February 1994
still under construction, contains some of the equipment evacuated from the
Muthanna area prior to the Gulf War. The site is now intended to produce
active ingredients for the Samarra Drug Company.
The team drew up an inventory of all relevant items at those sites and
applied 227 tags to 223 items items of dual-use equipment at Al Muthanna,
Fallujahs II and III and Ibn al Baytar. No items requiring tagging were found
at Fallujah I.
At Ibn al Baytar, the team conducted an inspection of the facility. In
addition to obtaining necessary information on the site, which had not been
previously inspected by the Special Commission, the inspection enabled the
team to evaluate the concept developed for monitoring a chemical production
facility and the appropriateness of the model monitoring and verification
protocol for such facilities. The team collected data on the structure,
purpose, funding, operational capacity of and future plans for the facility,
in accordance with the format of the model monitoring and verification
protocol. Certain fine tuning of the model monitoring and verification
protocol was incorporated into the protocol for the site.
Discussions were held with Iraq concerning its request to convert certain
items of equipment to civil uses. Iraq expressed its desire for all the
tagged items to be converted. Iraq was informed that, in order to make
decisions on a case-by-case basis, the Commission would require greater
details as to the proposed use to which each item would be put.
Concurrent with inspection activities, technical talks were held with the
Iraqi side on the formats for Iraq's declarations of its permitted chemical
and biological activities, due under the plan for ongoing monitoring and
verification, and of its past chemical weapons production. The team explained
to Iraqi officials the structure of the formats and how they should be
completed in order to meet the Commission's requirements.
Iraq provided, as requested by the Special Commission during the November
1993 round of high-level technical talks in New York, a year-by-year breakdown
of Iraq's acquisition of equipment and precursor chemicals for its past
chemical weapons production programme. Iraq also provided a more detailed
description of its chemical weapons research and development activities than
hitherto received by the Commission. That included descriptions of research
conducted into the production of BZ-type hallucinogens and nitrogen mustard
agents (agents not part of Iraq's chemical weapons arsenal) and their
precursors.
Members of the team took advantage of their presence in Iraq to discuss
with the members of the Chemical Destruction Group requirements and procedures
for the closure of the Chemical Destruction Group's operations at Al Muthanna.
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