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U.N.: Satellite shows Iraq stripped sites
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-03-05 12:59
Satellite imagery has revealed that approximately 90 sites in
Iraq subject to U.N. inspection and monitoring have been stripped of
equipment or razed, the chief U.N. weapons inspector said in a report Friday.
Demetrius Perricos said experts from the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and
Inspection Commission, which he leads, also noted repairs and new construction
at 10 sites.
The commission, known as UNMOVIC, previously reported the looting and razing
of sites that contained equipment and materials that were subject to inspection
because of their potential for use in chemical or biological weapons or the
long-range missiles to deliver them. Friday's report to the U.N. Security
Council was the first to provide information on the extent of the disappearance
and destruction.
While the U.S.-led military is in Iraq and the chief U.S. arms hunter Charles
Duelfer found no evidence of weapons programs, the insecurity in the country —
and the disappearance of equipment and the reappearance of some pieces in
scrapyards in Jordan and the Netherlands — has raised concerns.
U.N. inspectors checked 411 sites in the months before they left Iraq ahead
of the U.S.-led war in March 2003. The U.S. government has barred the inspectors
from returning, but UNMOVIC experts have acquired and analyzed post-war
satellite imagery of 353 sites, "including those considered the most important,"
the report said.
Experts determined that 70 of the sites sustained bomb damage, the commission
said, and about 90 of the 353 sites with sensitive equipment and materials were
stripped or razed.
Perricos also referred to Duelfer's Oct. 6 report, which said his Iraq Survey
Group found no weapons of mass destruction, discrediting US President Bush's
stated rationale for invading Iraq.
Duelfer had also expressed concern about biological material that could be
used in weapons and was unaccounted for — an issue that Perricos addressed
again.
Perricos noted in Friday's report that the Iraqis had handed over 90 unopened
vials of biological agents to U.N. weapons inspectors, but declared that 13
vials had been used, some in its biological weapons program.
Both Duelfer and Perricos raised the issue of what happened to residue in the
used vials, which can be used to make more biological material. Perricos
recommended addressing the issue by monitoring for "any possible future activity
associated with biological weapon agent production or dsignificant related
laboratory research work."
UNMOVIC's quarterly report, which will be discussed by the council on
Tuesday, was released amid reports that the United States has quietly started
low-key talks on ending the commission's work. Regardless of what happens to
UNMOVIC, however, it is highly likely that the Security Council will insist that
Iraq remain under some form of weapons monitoring.
American officials had said repeatedly that the United States would not
formally discuss UNMOVIC's future until Duelfer finished his work.
Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov, a member of UNMOVIC's board of
commissioners, has said Duelfer's report and the recent Iraqi elections are
indications that it is time for the Security Council to discuss the future of
U.N. inspections. Friday's report also noted that the commissioners recognized
that UNMOVIC's mandate was an issue for the Security Council.
UNMOVIC is the outgrowth of a U.N. inspections process created after the 1991
Gulf War in which invading Iraqi forces were ousted from Kuwait. Its staff are
considered the only weapons experts specifically trained in biological weapons
and missile disarmament.
Separately, the report noted that the United Nations asked commission experts
to create a set of enhanced images so that the Indian Ocean areas affected by
the Dec. 26 tsunami could be mapped and analyzed.
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