IK/171
22 June 1994
UNITED NATIONS SPECIAL COMMISSION COMPLETES DESTRUCTION
OF DECLARED CHEMICAL WEAPONS STOCKS IN IRAQ
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 activities of the Chemical Destruction Group at Muthanna were
concluded on 14 June. This brought to a successful end a unique multinational
undertaking, fulfilling the Commission's mandate to eliminate Iraq's declared
chemical weapons stockpile and doing so expeditiously, at minimal expense, and
with no damage to the environment.
This was a two-year operation, involving some 100 experts from 23
countries, in the course of which the following were destroyed: over
480,000 litres of chemical warfare agents (including mustard agent and the
nerve agents sarin and tabun); over 28,000 chemical munitions (involving eight
types of munitions ranging from rockets, to artillery shells, to bombs, to
ballistic missile warheads); and nearly 1.8 million litres, over 1,040,000
kilograms and 648 barrels of some 45 different precursor chemicals for the
production of chemical warfare agents.
Two Chemical Weapons inspection teams were deployed to Iraq between
31 May and 14 June in order to make a final assessment of the status of the
Commission's chemical destruction operations at Al Muthanna.
The aims of the inspection activities were to confirm that the
destruction of declared chemical warfare agents, their precursors and certain
production equipment was complete and to confirm that those areas of the site
used for the destruction operations had been left in a safe and acceptable
manner. At the end of the inspection activities, responsibility for the site
was formally handed back to the Iraqi authorities.
The inspection teams carried out a joint survey of the former Al Muthanna
State establishment with Iraqi representatives and provided them with complete
documentation of all destruction activities carried out by the Chemical
Destruction Group over the past two years. One inspection team conducted a
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22 June 1994
detailed scientific survey of those areas involved in the destruction
activities and provided real-time analysis on site of samples taken during the
survey.
Upon completion of the mission, both inspection temas were able to report
that, in those areas of the site involved with the destruction operation, no
significant level of chemical contamination could be detected and that all
destruction activities at Al Muthanna were complete. At a formal meeting held
on the morning of 13 June in Baghdad, the hand-over protocols were signed by
representatives of the Commission and Iraq.
The Chemical Destruction Group left Iraq on 14 June and was disbanded in
Bahrain on 16 June. The Commission, however, shall continue to visit the site
as part of its ongoing monitoring and verification activities, as required
under Security Council resolution 715 (1991).
THe Commission wishes to pay a special tribute to the international
experts and Iraqi personnel who brought this operation to such a successful
conclusion.
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