Chemical warfare agents destroyed, Special Commission reports.

The UN Special Commission on Iraqi disarmament (UNSCOM), set up under Security Council resolution 687 (1991), has virtually completed the destruction of Iraq's declared and recovered stockpiles of chemical warfare agents, it was reported on 2 5 March.

In all, the Chemical Destruction Group of the special commission destroyed some 400,000 litres of sulphur mustard at the Muthanna site, nearly 28,000 chemical munitions (rockets, missile warheads, artillery shells and bombs), nearly 83,000 litres of nerve agents, more than 1,220,000 litres of key precursor chemicals for the production of mustard or nerve agents, and some 421,000 litres, 1,035,500 kilogrammes and 197 barrels of other chemical precursors.

A small amount of other precursor chemicals remained to be destroyed at Muthanna, in addition to quantities of equipment for the production of chemical warfare agents. Thereafter, a comprehensive survey of the site was to be conducted to ensure that no chemical warfare hazard remained in the area. Any additional items for destruction discovered during this survey would be dealt with at that stage.

It was suspected that there might be 155-millimetre mustard-filled artillery shells buried at the site. Iraq agreed to assist the Commission in identifying and recovering those munitions, after which they would be destroyed.

The Commission also reported the removal on 12 February of a second and final consignment of highly-enriched uranium (HEU) in the form of irradiated nuclear fuel, thus completing the removal of declared stocks of nuclear-weapons grade material from Iraq. In the course of inspections, it was revealed that Iraq had separated gram quantities of plutonium. The separated plutonium was removed from Iraq by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 1991.

The irradiated fuel was removed under a contract with the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy and a United States subcontractor which supplied specially-designed casks capable of withstanding an airplane crash. The Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission provided all necessary assistance, and the fuel was removed in two shipments under close supervision of IAEA inspectors.

After dilution to lower enrichment at the Chelyabinsk facility in the Russian Federation, the residual materials will be available for sale under IAEA supervision for use in peaceful nuclear activities. Reprocessing of the fuel is expected to take six months.

No chemicals in southern iraq

The Special Commission announced on 28 February that it had not found any traces of chemical weapons in samples taken and analysed from the marsh region of southern Iraq, following allegations that the Iraqi military had used such weapons against opposition forces in early September 1993. The Commission launched an investigation in November, which included a fact-finding mission to Iran and an on-site inspection in Iraq, during which time portable sensors were unable to detect traces of chemical warfare agents. The team concluded that it was unlikely that a chemical-weapons attack had occurred.

A large number of flora, fauna, water, air and soil samples, divided into three sets, were taken for laboratory analysis. Each set was sent to three laboratories in the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Analysis done in the United Kingdom and the United States laboratories confirmed that the samples contained no traces of chemical warfare agents.

The Commission's twenty-first ballistic missile inspection team has assessed the capabilities and the potential use in missile production activities of some 14 sites located in and around Baghdad. The inspection, conducted from 17 to 25 February, focused on identifying effective monitoring procedures for those sites.

High-level talks

Sanctions against Iraq were maintained after the Security Council President on 18 january announced, following consultations, that there was no agreement that the necessary conditions existed for their modification.

High-level talks were held in New York from 14 to 19 March by the Special Commission and the IAEA with the Iraqi Government. Rolf Ekeus, Executive Chairman of the Special Commission, reported (S/1994/341) to the Secretary-General on 19 March that Iraq had stated that the ongoing monitoring and verification regime was already in place and that it had met all the requirements of Council resolution 687. Iraq said the Commission and the IAEA should recommend that the Council lift the existing oil embargo. It felt that the Commission was acting out of political motives inconsistent with its mandate.

The Commission had replied that Iraq had not yet completed all the actions necessary to have the sanctions lifted as specified in resolution 687. The system of ongoing monitoring and verification adopted by the Council had to be put in place, and doing so would require many additional actions on the part of Iraq. The Commission and the IAEA had only one objective: to fulfil to the Security Council's satisfaction their technical mandates as soon as feasible.

Executive Chairman Ekeus held talks in Baghdad with the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister from 2 to 5 February. In a joint statement, they said that the breakthrough in relations between Iraq and the Special Commission achieved in July 1993, at which time Iraq had indicated its readiness to comply with the provisions of the plans of ongoing monitoring and verification under resolution 715 (1991), had been consolidated.

The two sides expressed readiness to expedite the ongoing monitoring and verification process in a spirit of goodwill, in order to achieve their joint objective of reporting to the Council that Iraq had complied with the requirements of resolution 687.

The Commission had indicated that it would continue the phase of inspections already initiated. Iraq indicated that it would welcome all such inspection teams and facilitate their tasks.

Other matters

The Security Council on 4 March decided that compensation payments could be made to certain Iraqi private citizens relocated from Kuwait to Iraq as a result of the official demarcation of the international boundary between the two States. In unanimously adopting resolution 899 (1994), the Council concurred with the Secretary-General's view that such payments would be for humanitarian purposes, notwithstanding resolution 661 (1990), which prohibited the remittal of funds to persons or bodies in Iraq.

On 22 February, the Secretary-General had described arrangements for the payments. After an assessment by an independent contractor, he determined that relocated citizens would receive 56 million Iraqi dinars for 95 farms and 15.5 million Iraqi dinars for 206 residential houses. Kuwait was to pay that amount into a trust fund established for the purpose, including all costs and expenses incurred by the UN.

The Council on 8 April informed (S/1994/411) the Secretary-General that it had reviewed the question of termination or continuation of the UN Iraq-Kuwait Observer Mission (UNIKOM), as well as its modalities of operation. The Council concurred with the Secretary-General's recommendation that UNIKOM be maintained, and decided to review the question again by 8 October 1994.

A UN spokesman on 6 April expressed extreme concern over the increasing number of attacks on foreigners in northern Iraq. The UN Guard Contingent in Iraq has a mandate to protect UN and non-governmental organization personnel carrying out humanitarian programmes.