Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

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