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]
Hi Tim and others, You ask: > Can anyone confirm [that chlorine imports have been > blocked by the Sanctions Committee] and refer me to > details? I don't have evidence of this (in part perhaps due to the secretive operation of the 661 Committee), so don't know whether and to what extent chlorine imports have been blocked. What I do know is that, since the early stages of "oil for food", provisions have been made to import chlorine to Iraq. The 90 day report for Phase II of "oil for food" (the "oil for food" programme has run in 180 day phases; the UN Secretary-General issues a report every 90 days, therefore at the half way point and end point of each phase) is available at: http://www.un.org/Docs/sc/reports/1997/s1997685.htm You will see that paragraphs 19 and 37 of this report (dated 4 September 1997) mention expected arrival of chlorine and protocols developed for tracking it in Iraq. (A complete list of Secretary-General's report can be found at http://www.cam.ac.uk/societies/casi/info/un.html) More recently, I have heard from a member of Unmovic, the new UN weapons inspectors, that there has been debate about removing chlorine gas from the "1051 lists" of potentially dual-use items. His explanation was that there is so much chlorine being imported into Iraq that (i) it takes up one and a half staff people's time just to file the applications; (ii) most of the sites receiving chlorine in Iraq (c. 900?) are then never inspected; and (iii) the chlorine tracking protocol has never worked anyhow. This doesn't answer the question of whether there is enough chlorine in Iraq, whether due to imports or domestic production. I don't have an answer to that. Conversations with UN and NGO staff that I had in Baghdad in December did suggest that the main problem with, say, delivering clean drinking water was NOT the problem of purifying it in a plant: that was reasonably easy. Problems arose because (i) the staff couldn't afford to be at work to maintain and use the plant properly; (ii) the distribution system was badly damaged, etc. (I don't recall my clothes smelling of diesel, but don't have enough experience to know whether my experience is typical. I do know that our hotel would clean its floors with some form of petrol product.) I hope that this is of some help. Best, ===== Colin Rowat 274 Vanderbilt Ave., #2 Brooklyn NY 11205 USA (m) 917 517 5840 (f) 707 221 3672 __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices http://auctions.yahoo.com/ -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq For removal from list, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk Full details of CASI's various lists can be found on the CASI website: http://www.casi.org.uk