The following is an archived copy of a message sent to a Discussion List run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
Views expressed in this archived message are those of the author, not of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
[Main archive index/search] [List information] [Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq Homepage]
Tuesday December 15 9:29 PM ET Butler Says Iraq Failed To Provide Full Cooperation UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Chief U.N. arms inspector Richard Butler said Tuesday that Iraq had not fully cooperated with his weapons experts. In the conclusions of a report to the Security Council, Butler said that Iraq ``did not provide the full cooperation it promised on Nov. 14'' and thereby ``ensured that no progress was able to be made in either the fields of disarmament or accounting for its prohibited weapons programs.'' -------- Tuesday December 15 9:00 PM ET Butler Report On Iraq Said To Be Negative By Evelyn Leopold UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Chief U.N. arms inspector Richard Butler has concluded that Iraq has not restored full cooperation with his weapons experts, diplomats and U.N. officials said Tuesday. Butler, the executive chairman of the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM), in charge of Iraq's chemical, biological and ballistic arms, hand-delivered a crucial report to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan late Tuesday. Diplomats described the document as drawing ``negative'' conclusions about Iraq's cooperation with arms inspections, which Baghdad first limited on Aug. 5 and halted on Oct. 31. The inspectors returned to Iraq on Nov. 14. Butler's report could provide a basis for possible U.S.-British air strikes against Iraq, which both countries have said could be conducted without any further diplomatic consultations or warnings. In contrast, the diplomats said a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), responsible for nuclear disarmament, gave a positive evaluation of Baghdad's compliance in allowing inspections. ...... Iraq, in its own summary of UNSCOM inspections since they resumed November 18, Monday submitted a letter criticizing the way some of them were carried out. It said a large team looking into alleged Iraqi concealment activities from Dec. 7 to 13 ``carried out its work in an intrusive and provocative manner showing no respect'' for what Iraq said were agreed procedures, particularly those relating to ``sensitive sites.'' It said the main members of the 30-member team, headed by Australian Roger Hill, included 20 Americans, Britons and Australians. This was the team that was barred when it tried to enter the Baghdad offices of Iraq's ruling Baath party. Iraq also complained that, after inspecting a guest house of its Special Security Service on Dec. 10, the team leader publicly stated that he ``sought to look into the Service's documents, which are closely related to Iraq's national security.'' The following day, ``the team inspected a residential house in Baghdad,'' which Iraq said ``indicates that the team has no specific target related to disarmament.'' Iraq said that on Dec. 5, among the sites inspected by one team were the offices of two singers identified as Karim Al-Khaliji and Mohammed Al-Ralal, the shop of a calligrapher, the office of a lawyer, two supermarkets and other premises. Regarding air surveillance by helicopters flown and maintained for UNSCOM by Chilean crews, Iraq said it was given so-called ``flight boxes'' -- map coordinates of areas liable to inspection -- that were unusually large and in some cases overlapped Iranian, Syrian and Jordanian territory. It did not say whether any of the helicopters actually flew beyond Iraqi borders. Another complaint was that UNSCOM failed to respect understandings between the two sides that Iraq said included avoiding flights over Baghdad and residential areas. UN evacuates staff from Iraq after Butler's report ---------- 07:13 GMT, 16 December 1998 BAGHDAD, Dec 16 (AFP) -UN humanitarian staff and weapons experts were being evacuated from Baghdad on Wednesday after UN arms chief Richard Butler warned Iraq was failing to cooperate with his inspectors, UN sources said. "We are in the process of evacuating" by plane to Bahrain, a source with the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) in charge of disarming Iraq told AFP, declining to give more details. Witnesses said humanitarian staff left the UN headquarters at the Canal Hotel with their baggage. "All the staff are being evacuated," said a witness at the building. Butler, the UNSCOM chairman, reported Tuesday that Iraq had not only failed to provide full cooperation with arms inspectors but had introduced new restrictions on their work. --------- Iraq says UN arms report seeks to justify US attack 09:35 GMT, 16 December 1998 BAGHDAD, Dec 16 (AFP) -Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz charged Wednesday that a negative report from UN weapons chief Richard Butler was designed to justify a US and British attack on Iraq. "This ill-intentioned report was drawn up on purpose to justify a US and British military aggression against Iraq," Aziz said, quoted by the official news agency INA. The UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) in charge of disarming Iraq began evacuating its staff from Baghdad on Wednesday, a day after Butler reported to the UN Security Council that Iraq had failed to cooperate fully with his inspectors. UN humanitarian staff were put on stand-by for a possible evacuation. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To be removed/added, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk, NOT the whole list. Archived at http://linux.clare.cam.ac.uk/~saw27/casi/discuss.html