PRESS BRIEFING BY UNSCOM EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING BY UNSCOM EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN

The Executive Chairman of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM), Richard Butler, said at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon that the Commission would close its investigation of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programmes once the Iraqi Government gave a true and verifiable accounting of its claims.

He said the Commission might be able to get the disarmament part of its work done in a relatively short time if Iraq cooperated by producing materials, evidence and documents required for UNSCOM's tasks.

Mr. Butler was briefing correspondents on his meeting yesterday with members of the Security Council on the Commission's fifth six-monthly report on its activities in Iraq (document S/1998/332 of 16 April). The Commission was established by Security Council resolution 687 (1991) to inspect Iraq's biological, chemical and missile capabilities and to destroy, remove or render harmless Iraq's proscribed weapons and all related components, items and facilities.

Mr. Butler said he had informed the Council that the report covered all the events that had taken place in relations between UNSCOM and Iraq -- before and after the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the United Nations and Iraq on 23 February. The former period was marked by possibly the most intense crisis in their relationship, while the latter saw an entirely new spirit of cooperation.

The report did make clear that because of the period of crisis -- October 1997 to February 1998 -- the Commission was not able to report any progress in its work on disarmament, he said. He had, however, informed the Council of the progress in recent weeks in the attempt to get an accounting of the special missile warheads that Iraq once possessed and which Iraq said had been unilaterally destroyed. In the Memorandum of Understanding, Iraq had given a basic promise to obey the Council's resolutions and to cooperate with UNSCOM. On its part, he said the Commission had promised that it would carry out its tasks honestly and with a very high level of competence and as quickly as possible.

Mr. Butler said he had called the Council's attention to those two promises and had requested it to urge Iraq's cooperation with UNSCOM. When the accounting was complete, the Commission would be the first to call for the lifting of the oil embargo against Iraq. His briefing, which was received with interest by Council members, was followed by a detailed debate with the participation of all Council members, the Executive Chairman said. He planned to propose an informal session with Council members for a detailed and technical discussion of the remaining issues on which Iraq needed to give an accounting.

Butler Briefing - 2 - 28 April 1998

A correspondent observed that Iraqi officials had been saying in effect that no matter how much they cooperated with UNSCOM inspectors, their assurances that Iraq had destroyed its capacity to make weapons of mass destruction would not be accepted because some Commission members were puppets of the United States and British Governments. The correspondent also said that on the other hand, the Iraqi officials also refused to accept the conclusions of non-UNSCOM experts who attended the technical evaluation meetings at Iraq's request. The correspondent asked what Mr. Butler's thoughts were on Iraq's contradictory position.

Replying, Mr. Butler said Iraq was obliged to make a full disclosure of its weapons of mass destruction, while the Commission was to verify it and to determine its veracity. Together with Iraq, those weapons were to be removed, destroyed or rendered harmless. The problem had been with Iraq's statements of full disclosure which the Commission had never been able to verify scientifically or technically to its satisfaction. "There is very good scientific and technical support for our difficulty in doing what we really want to do -- which is, to find what Iraq had disclosed to be true. We want it to be true." Mr. Butler reiterated that disarmament by declaration was against the Council's resolutions. Iraq had to provide the materials to support its claims, and that was where it failed. Iraq had all those materials in its archives and records at its disposal.

Asked whether he believed that Iraq currently possessed any weapons of mass destruction, and if so, to indicate the types, Mr. Butler said Iraq had to show what happened to the weapons it made in the past and might still hold. The Commission could not verify Iraq's claim that it had no more prohibited missile, chemical weapon or biological weapon capability. "We want to be able to do so, but we need positive verification that what they created -- and they acknowledge they had in the past -- have all been used, destroyed and somehow accounted for, so that I can tell the Security Council that it is over."

He said, "If they really want this to be over, they should give it to us. They promised in the Memorandum of Understanding that they would give us full cooperation. That's all we ask. Our promise is when they do that, they will find us competent, honest and quick." Responding to another question, he said that UNSCOM bore the Iraqis no ill-will and that they should provide the materials requested of them.

Mr. Butler told a correspondent that if he believed Iraqi accusations that UNSCOM members were agents of the United States Central Intelligence Agency, the questioner would believe anything. "That is so shockingly wrong. It's just not true."

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