Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris
Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris
Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris
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REVUE DE PRESSE~PRESS REVIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RIVISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA~BASIN ÖZETi<br />
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 1994,<br />
90<br />
UN Monitoring Stops lmqi A-Weapons,<br />
but Saddarn Survives<br />
By Paul Lewis<br />
New York Times Service<br />
BAGHDAD - The vi<strong>de</strong>o image flickering in<br />
a United Nations office here indicates that the<br />
'monitoring system imposed on Iraq's industry is<br />
achieving its aim of preventing Presi<strong>de</strong>nt Saddam<br />
Hussein from building weapons of : 'ass<br />
<strong>de</strong>struction.<br />
But it also means that the oil embargo and<br />
other sanctions placed on Iraq after its invasion<br />
of Kuwait are closer to being lifted without<br />
having achieved their unstated aim - in the eyes<br />
of the United States and some other countries -<br />
of removing Mr. Saddam from power as well.<br />
A little green line, constantly expanding and<br />
contracting at the bottom of the screen in the UN<br />
office, means that the picture is being relayed live<br />
from a camera trained on equipment on a factory<br />
floor somewhere in Iraq.<br />
The camera is part of a sophisticated syste~,<br />
requiring 20 tO?Sof senso~s and o~her ~l~tromc<br />
equipment, which the Umted .Nal!0ns I~mstalling<br />
in 30 key plants and which IS <strong>de</strong>signed to<br />
guarantee that Iraq does not <strong>de</strong>velop nuclear,<br />
chemical or biological weapons or long-range<br />
rock<strong>et</strong>s.<br />
Meanwhile, the second floor of the UN office<br />
"isbeing ripped apart as a high-security control<br />
center is built for an SO-personteam that expects<br />
to be monitoring Iraqi industry for years to<br />
come.<br />
, A 90-m<strong>et</strong>er (300-foot), red and white tower has<br />
just been compl<strong>et</strong>ed to receive signals from all<br />
the remote-control cameras and sensors installed<br />
in factories around the country. The same tower<br />
will transmit radio signals from the control center<br />
to inspectors in the field.<br />
"This is the most sophisticated and intrusive<br />
industrial monitoring system ever <strong>de</strong>vised," said<br />
Guy Martelle, an American engineer working on<br />
the project, which he said he expects to be fully<br />
operational by September.<br />
All this equipment, tog<strong>et</strong>her with the regular<br />
checks that UN inspectors will make on some<br />
150 industrial sites that could be used to <strong>de</strong>velop<br />
prohibited weapons, represents a political turnmg<br />
point in Iraq's troubled relations with the<br />
UN Sec:urity Council.<br />
As part of the terms for ending the Gulf War<br />
in 1991, the council created the UN Special<br />
Commission and or<strong>de</strong>red it to eliminate Iraq's<br />
weapons of mass <strong>de</strong>struction and ensure that<br />
Baghdad never acquired them again. When this<br />
has been done to its satisfaction, the council said,<br />
the embargo on Iraqi oil sales will have "no<br />
further force or effect."<br />
Mter first trying to hi<strong>de</strong> his secr<strong>et</strong> military<br />
programs and then obstructing the arms inspectors<br />
sent to ferr<strong>et</strong> them out, Mr. Saddam now<br />
appears to be cooperating fully with the special<br />
commission in the hope that the council willlift<br />
the oil embargo earlynext year.<br />
'Earlier Üùs 'month, when the council last reviewed<br />
the embargo, Rolf Ekeus, the Swedish<br />
head of the special commission, said the first part<br />
of his task was almost compl<strong>et</strong>e.<br />
, Some documents relating to weapons pro-'<br />
grams are still missing. But Mr. Ekeus said, he<br />
hoped to report "shortly that the full accounting<br />
of Iraq's programs which the council required<br />
has been Compl<strong>et</strong>ed."<br />
The' council must still adopt a resolution requiring<br />
companies selling equipment with militarypotential<br />
to Iraq to report such sales in the<br />
futiJre so the UN monitors can ensure that it is<br />
not used iD arms <strong>de</strong>velopment.<br />
But after a probationary period to make sure<br />
the monitoring systein works - Mr. Ekeus sug.<br />
gested six months - the special commission now<br />
believes that it will be in a position next March to<br />
report that Iraq has complied with the Security<br />
Council's disarmament terms, indicating that the<br />
embargo should be lifted.<br />
All the evi<strong>de</strong>nce now suggests that Iraq ~<br />
<strong>de</strong>termined to ensure that the monitoring systepï"<br />
works well.<br />
Last November, Mr. Saddam formally agreed<br />
, to it. In December, Iraq <strong>de</strong>creed that tampering<br />
with the monitoring system was "a major crime.".<br />
And Mr. Ekeus said in a recent interview that hé<br />
believed that Mr. Saddam had personally ot.<strong>de</strong>red<br />
full cooperation with the UN commission<br />
in May. ,<br />
"Cooperation is excellent," said Jaako Ylitala,<br />
the Finnish head of the UN team. "The Iraqis<br />
have created a special authority to work with us,<br />
and we have hundreds of them helping install the<br />
system."<br />
But two major difficulties may still make the<br />
Security Council reluctant to lift economic sanctions<br />
when the commission finds that Iraq has;<br />
com lied. "<br />
rte first is Iraq's continuing attitu<strong>de</strong> toward<br />
Kuwait, the Gulf emirate that Iraq annexed and<br />
inva<strong>de</strong>d in 1990.While Iraq's rubber-stamp Par-<br />
, liament officially annulled the annexation after<br />
the Gulf War, the following year, the government-controlled<br />
news media in Baghdad continue<br />
to refer to Kuwait as part of Iraq.<br />
The second difficulty is thê attitu<strong>de</strong> of the<br />
Clinton administration, which appears to be following<br />
in the footsteps of its pre<strong>de</strong>cessor, arguing<br />
thatIraq cannot be trusted to behave so long<br />
as Mr. Saddam remains in power. .<br />
Referring to the UN commission by its diplcr<br />
matic shorthand, W. Anthony' Lake, Presi<strong>de</strong>nt<br />
Bill Clinton's national security adviser, wrote in<br />
Foreign Mfairsmagazine in April: "There is<br />
plenty of evi<strong>de</strong>nce to suggest the only reason the<br />
Iraqi regime is beginning to cooperate with<br />
UNSCOM is to secure the lifting of oil sanctions.<br />
Once the oil starts flowing again, Washington<br />
must assume Saddam will renege on long-term<br />
monitoring and begiD rebuilding his weapons of<br />
mass <strong>de</strong>struction program."