'Most complex' weapons inspection uncovers no violations.

After completing its "largest, most complex" inspection, the Special Commission on Iraqi disarmament reported on 8 November that it had found no weapons prohibited under Security Council resolution 687 (1991).

Eighty-five inspectors from nine countries undertook the Commission's nineteenth ballistic missile inspection, visiting more than 30 sites between 30 September and 30 October. The team investigated possible caches of banned weapons and verified Iraqi declarations on its past weapons programmes and activities. Using state-of-the-art technology, including ground-penetrating radar mounted on specially-adapted helicopters, it surveyed sites in central, northern and western Iraq.

The Commission, in a report (S/26910) on activities from 14 June to 14 December, said Iraq had provided "all the support requested" by the inspection team.

However, the Commission's twelfth chemical weapons inspection team reported that Iraq refused a demand to interview army personnel near the site of an alleged chemical attack.

Inspectors, nevertheless, concluded on-site work on 21 November, finding no immediate evidence of chemical weapons use. The team collected soil, water, flora and fauna samples for laboratory analysis.

By mid-December, the Commission's Chemical Destruction Group completed its large-scale destruction of Iraq's stock of 155-millimetre mustard-agent-filled artillery shells. The Group expected to complete its work by mid-1994.

The international Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) twenty-second nuclear inspection team completed a two-week mission in Iraq from 1 to 15 November, reporting (S/1994/31) that the "inspection ran smoothly and the Iraqi side was helpful throughout". The team of 17 inspectors from nine nations conducted monitoring inspections at eight "core" sites of the former Iraqi nuclear programme.

It collected surface water along the Tigris-Euphrates watersheds, as part of a periodic radiometric survey. It verified equipment declarations and data on Iraqi centrifuge activities.

Detailed microscopic examinations were performed on nuclear material declared to have originated in Brazil. "Further corroboration will be sought with the assistance of the Brazilian Government", the report stated.

During a second round of high-level talks under Commission and IAEA auspices in Baghdad in early October, Iraq handed over a "detailed account of its chemical weapons production in the past and, for the first time, details on the suppliers of critical equipment".

In a further round (New York, 15-30 November), the Commission deemed that information "credible", stating it would do its best to verify the information as soon as possible. However, Iraq had to supplement and revise its declarations so that they conformed with the "full, final and complete disclosures" required under Council resolutions 707 (1991) and 715 (1991), the report stated.

On the basis of revised declarations, the Commission was to draw up a list of sites to be subject to baseline inspections. In addition, a mechanism was needed to monitor imports and exports.

Despite headway on inspections and weapons destruction, border skirmishes persisted. On 23 November, the Security Council expressed serious concern over recent violations of the Iraq-Kuwait boundary. According to the UN Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM), large numbers of Iraqi nationals had crossed the boundary illegally. The Council demanded that Iraq "respect the inviolability of the international boundary".

Iraq responded (S/26712) that its border and airspace had been violated by the United States "for purposes of reconnaissance and provocation", and that Kuwaiti nationals near the border had fired shots towards Iraq.

The General Assembly, in adopting resolution 48/144 on 20 December by a vote of 116 to 2 (Iraq, Sudan), with 43 abstentions, strongly condemned massive violations of human rights in Iraq, including arbitrary executions and arrests, particularly in the northern region. It also decried the practice of torture, the suppression of freedom of thought and expression, and Iraq's failure to respect the economic rights of the population.

Max van der Stoel, Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the situation in Iraq, on 23 November said that by late November, Iraq's repeated violations of human rights had become so serious that the UN needed to consider stationing international human rights monitors on the Iraq-Kuwaiti border.