Iraq: challenge to Council resolutions continues; UNIKOM militarized, enlarged after raids.

The Security Council on 5 February responded to continuous Iraqi challenges to the UN-imposed cease-fire agreement by authorizing an enlarged and militarized UN presence in the region.

In adopting resolution 806 (1993), the Council transformed the UN Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM) from an unarmed observer contingent into an armed force capable of preventing small-scale violations of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between Iraq and Kuwait. It also authorized an increase in personnel from 350 to some 3,600.

The Council acted following a series of what were widely seen as provocative Iraqi actions, in violation of UN resolutions, which included dismantling and removal of equipment from a facility in the DMZ, attempting to ban UN inspection flights over its territory and threatening coalition flight operations that were intended to monitor Iraqi compliance. These actions resulted in a series of airstrikes by coalition forces against Iraqi military targets in January.

And, despite the Council action, the situation continued through the end of March.

Iraq was advised on 26 March that it remained in violation of the full range of Council resolutions and was warned that any provocative actions would receive a firm response from coalition forces which had participated in the 1991 Persian Gulf war.

The warning was conveyed to Iraq's Permanent Representative to the UN, Nizar Hamdoon, by four permanent Council members--France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States.

In a statement, they declared they were committed to "the preservation of the territorial integrity of Iraq" and to "easing the suffering of the civilian population", through the implementation of Council resolutions 706 (1991) and 712 (1991). They emphasized that it was "in Iraq's own interest" to comply fully with all relevant Council resolutions and stressed their determination to ensure such compliance.

Resolution 706 stipulates the terms for the limited sale of Iraqi oil and oil products, so that essential civilian needs could be met, under strict conditions and with close UN monitoring. The sum to be produced by Iraq's limited oil exports was not to exceed $1.6 billion. Resolution 712 was adopted to implement resolution 706.

Sanctions continued

On 29 March, and earlier on 25 January, the Security Council had taken decisions to continue the sanctions regime against Iraq.

The new United States Permanent Representative to the UN, Madeleine Albright, told the press that "among Iraq's many unfulfilled obligations" was that it had not allowed any long-term monitoring by UN agencies of its weapons programmes. It had also not ceased the massive repression of its civilian population and had not accepted the UN-demarcated boundary between Iraq and Kuwait, she said.

On 13 February, Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Said Al-Sahaf registered (S/25298) Iraq's "protest and remonstrance" against the Sanctions Committee's working procedures. The Committee, he maintained, had "revealed a transparent insistence on continuing to inflict damage on the Iraqi people and deprive it of the most elementary requirements for its daily life".

Most of the requests submitted to the Committee, he stated, were rejected by the United States and the United Kingdom, although they were made in connection with "basic requirements of daily life for the Iraqi people".

Council demands, condemns

In an 8 January statement, the Council had demanded that Iraq not interfere with planned UN flights into the country and warned Iraq of serious consequences for failure to comply with its obligations.

The Council said it was deeply disturbed by Iraq's recent declaration to the UN that it would not allow the UN to transport its personnel into the country using its own aircraft.

Iraqi restrictions, it went on, would seriously impede the activities of the Special Commission on Iraqi disarmament, the international Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and UNIKOM, and constituted an unacceptable and material breach of relevant provisions of resolution 687 (1991), as well as other UN resolutions and agreements.

Resolution 687, adopted on 3 April 1991, set detailed conditions for a formal cease-fire ending the hostilities resulting from Iraq's August 1991 occupation of Kuwait and provided conditions essential to the restoration of peace and security in the region. Prime among those conditions was total Iraqi compliance with UN decisions, including those which obliged Iraq to submit to on-site inspections of designated locations.

The situation escalates

Special Commission spokesman Tim Trevan said on 8 January that the Iraqi decision to ban the use of UN aircraft in the country was "a very serious violation", which would "seriously hinder" UN operations in Iraq. If the Commission wished to use aircraft, Iraq said, it "must use Iraqi-chartered aircraft and not United Nations aircraft"; otherwise, its members should travel by land.

On 9 January, Iraq said (S/25086) its ban on foreign aircraft was a "temporary decision" dictated by "United States threats to Iraq".

On 10 January, the Secretary-General reported (S/25085) that a party of about 200 Iraqis forced its way into six ammunition bunkers located in a former Iraqi naval base at Umm Qasr, on Kuwaiti territory, and took most of their contents. UNIKOM staff had tried but was unable to prevent the Iraqi action. The Iraqis also dismantled prefabricated buildings and removed items from its former naval base, also on Kuwaiti territory.

UNIKOM had lodged a protest with the Iraqi Foreign Ministry. The Secretary-General said that with the ban against UN aircraft, doubt was cast on Iraq's continued willingness to cooperate with UNIKOM and abide by the commitments it had undertaken.

|Clear-cut defiance'

In an 11 January statement by Council President Yoshio Hatano of Japan, the body said it was deeply concerned at the incidents reported in the Secretary-General's 10 January report. it condemned the removal from Kuwait of equipment, particularly anti-ship missiles and other military equipment, in spite of UNIKOM objections.

Iraq's action directly challenged UNIKOM's authority and amounted to its "clear-cut defiance" of the Council. The Council demanded the return of the equipment and condemned further Iraqi intrusions into the Kuwaiti side of the DMZ.

On 19 January, the Secretary-General reported (S/25085/Add.1) that under UNIKOM supervision, Iraq had withdrawn the six police posts located on Kuwaiti territory. As of 13 January, the retrieval of Iraqi assets from the territory had ceased.

On 15 January, Iraq informed the Council that as of 13 January it had suspended removal of its property from Umm Qasr and the DMZ. On 16 January, Iraq said (S/25111) it had allowed UN aircraft to fly to Iraq on a "case-by-case basis". Regarding UN flights, Iraq said it would not assume responsibility for the safety of any aircraft within its airspace, because of the "military aggression carried out by United States, United Kingdom and French fighter planes" to which Iraq was being subjected.

Iraq said it would ensure the safety of UN aircraft if they entered Iraqi airspace from the west using the direct flight route between Amman (or any other point in Jordan) and Habbaniyah.

Raids against Iraq

According to a United States official, American and British bombers on 13 January carried out a raid against Iraqi military targets. On 14 January, the Secretary-General told the press in Paris that the raid was in accordance with a mandate under Council resolution 687 and in conformity with Council resolutions and the Charter. The reason for the raid was Iraq's violation of resolution 687. it was in the Iraqis' interest, he stressed, to implement UN resolutions to bring the embargo and the situation they were in to an end. Iraq, he stated, had caused the UN one problem after another, all of which he had endeavoured to solve in a peaceful manner.

In a 19 January statement (S/25128), Iraq's Revolution Command Council said Iraq would cease fire as of 20 January, "except in the event of firing by the other party". That was being done to "afford the new United States Administration an opportunity to consider the ban on Iraqi aviation in areas of northern and southern Iraq, so that it may verify ... that the decision of the previous Administration and its associates to impose the ban was a unilateral and unwarranted one". The ban was aimed at "achieving particular political objectives that have no connection" with UN resolutions. Iraq would cease fire also "to allow the scope for the new Administration to establish a constructive dialogue".

The Secretary-General on 20 January welcomed the Iraqi statement as to its intention to cease fire. He strongly hoped that that development, together with Iraq's full compliance with all Council resolutions, would decrease tension in the area.

A UN official on 21 January said that a UN plane carrying 52 UN personnel had landed in Iraq that day. Another UN flight had arrived in Baghdad on 22 January with 19 passengers . Two more flights arrived in Iraq in the following week.

On 22 January, the Council informally discussed an offer by the Holy See, at Iraq's request, to promote a dialogue between the Council and Iraq.

UNIKOM: An armed force

In transforming UNIKOM to an armed force through resolution 806, the Council authorized the Mission to prevent or redress small-scale violations of the DMZ, violations of the boundary between Iraq and Kuwait, and problems that might arise from the presence of Iraqi installations and its citizens and their assets in the DMZ on the Kuwaiti side of the newly demarcated boundary.

In the first phase, the military observers would be retained and reinforced by one mechanized infantry battalion.

Boundary Commission

The UN Iraq-Kuwait Boundary Demarcation Commission, at its ninth session (Geneva, 15-18 March), said that it viewed navigational access for both Iraq and Kuwait to various parts of their respective territories bordering the demarcated boundary between them as important "for ensuring an equitable character and for promoting stability and peace and security along the border".

The Commission reviewed the results of the aerial photography conducted in February in preparation for additional large-scale mapping and for determination of the low-water springs for demarcation purposes.

On 19 March, Kuwait strongly regretted (S/25446) Iraq's non-participation in the Commission meeting which, it said, "clearly portrays Iraq's ill-intention" towards complying with Council resolutions.

Inspections

The fifteenth and sixteenth in a series of inspections of Iraq's ballistic missile capabilities too place from 12 to 23 February and from 22 to 23 February, respectively. Fourteen earlier inspections had been carried out between 30 June 1991 and 30 October 1992.

The main objectives of the fifteenth team were to conduct inspections at a number of undeclared sites, assess the capabilities of certain facilities and, as part of efforts to uncover Iraq's supplier network, make thorough inventories of certain equipment and raw materials used in that country's ballistic missile programmes. In doing so, it inspected some 356 buildings and structures.

The sixteenth inspection mission was to act on information received that specific items related to ballistic missiles and prohibited under resolution 687 were present at sites to the west of Baghdad. Three undeclared sites were inspected. Simultaneously, aerial surveillance was conducted by Special Commission helicopters and high-altitude surveillance aircraft. No proscribed items or activities were observed.

The seventeenth and eighteenth inspections of Iraq's nuclear capabilities took place from 25 to 31 January and from 3 to 11 March, respectively. Sixteen previous inspections had been carried out between 14 May 1991 and 8 December 1992. The seventeenth team inspected a number of facilities and sites. The eighteenth team inspected sites to determine whether any type of nuclear facility had been built underground. The team reported that "immediate in-field conclusions were negative". A major effort concentrated on identifying and separating a large number of radiation sources. Those which were permitted for use in applications in agriculture and industry would eventually be released according to established procedures. Other sources, such as radium and tritium, would be kept under IAEA control.

The team reported no progress on the provision by Iraq of information about foreign procurement and its procurement network, and said that Iraq was still far from complying with IAEA's request. However, Iraq said that IAEA had a great deal of information on the subject.

A third biological weapons inspection was undertaken from 11 to 18 March. Two previous inspections had been carried out between 2 August and 3 October 1991. The team inspected seven sites and equipment related to biological activities, most of which had been identified by previous Special Commission teams. It found no biological weapons, warheads or munition-filling facilities. However, several of the sites visited were determined to have dual capability; that is, in addition to their permitted use, they could be used for illegal efforts to produce biological weapons.

New type of inspection

On 4 February, the Special Commission announced that it had initiated on 26 January a new type of inspection activity in Iraq. A small "standing inspector presence"--consisting of a team of four experts: two Russian and two American--had been established at the Ibn Al-Haytham missile research and development centre, located north of Baghdad, in order to assess and monitor research activities undertaken there. The team completed its task on 22 March.

Under the terms of resolution 687, the Commission pointed out, Iraq had agreed to renounce permanently weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles with a range greater than 150 kilometres. The Commission had been charged in the non-nuclear areas with identifying and destroying those weapons and with monitoring Iraq's compliance with its obligation not to reacquire them. That resolution also called upon the Commission to draw up a plan for the ongoing monitoring and verification of Iraq's compliance. That plan (S/22871/Rev.1) had been adopted by the Council in resolution 715 (1991) on 11 October 1991.

Resolve inconsistencies

The Commission said it had, by a combination of Iraqi declarations and its own activities, identified and destroyed a large number of items and facilities associated with Iraq's ballistic missile programmes. However, in the absence of full Iraqi declarations about the programmes, efforts to fill in the gaps and resolve inconsistencies in those declarations were continuing through inspection activities.

The Commission affirmed that Ibn Al-Hytham was Iraq's principal centre for research and development into missiles with a range shorter than 150 kilometres-missiles not banned under resolution 687-and that Iraq had assembled there scientific and technical personnel formerly involved in prohibited ballistic missile programmes.

The Centre should be monitored, the Commission said. However, Iraq had consistently refused to acknowledge its obligations pursuant to resolution 715, arguing that monitoring should be conducted on a basis acceptable to Iraq. The Commission insisted that it should be able to implement fully the UN plan.

A Special Commission official said on 6 April that a follow-up group was undertaking similar activities in relation to the fuel component of Iraq's ballistic missile programmes. It had started work on 27 March.

The Special Commission announced on 23 February that its Chemical Destruction Group at Muthanna State Establishment had completed on 14 February the destruction in Iraq of all the 122 millimetre rockets filled with the nerve agent sarin that were known to the Group.