Iraq: Compliance, Sanctions, and U.S. Policy
generators for biological dissemination, as well as the fate of the biological munitions. In
early April 2001, Iraq wrote to Secretary General Annan that it plans to refurbish the Doura
laboratory, destroyed by UNSCOM in 1996 on the grounds it could be used for biological
weapons. Iraq says it needs the plant to produce vaccines against foot and mouth disease.
The October 2001 anthrax-related terrorism in the United States has generated
suspicions of Iraqi involvement because Iraq developed anthrax as part of its biological
program. No evidence linking the anthrax to Iraq has been announced, and White House
spokespersons said in late December 2001 that the anthrax used in the attacks appeared to
be from a domestic source, such as a U.S. military laboratory.
Ballistic Missiles
U.N. Security Council Resolution 687 requires the destruction of all Iraqi ballistic
missiles with a range greater than 150 kilometers. UNSCOM accounted for 817 of 819
Soviet-supplied Scud missiles, 130 of which survived the Gulf war, as well as all 14 declared
mobile launchers and 60 fixed launch pads. U.S. and British analysts, contrary to
UNSCOM’s assessments, believe Iraq might be concealing 10 to 12 Russian-supplied Scudtype
missiles. UNSCOM’s last regular report (October 1998) said it had been able to account
for at least 43 of the 45 chemical and biological (CBW) warheads Iraq said it unilaterally
destroyed in 1991. (The warheads were unearthed in mid-1998.) An additional 30 chemical
warheads were previously destroyed under UNSCOM supervision. UNSCOM also
accounted for all but 50 conventional Scud warheads, and said it had made progress toward
establishing a material balance for Scud engine components. Unresolved issues include
accounting for missile program documentation, 300 tons of special missile propellant, and
indigenous missile production (30 indigenously-made warheads and 7 missiles).
In December 1995, after Jordan reported seizing 115 Russian-made missile guidance
components allegedly bound for Iraq, UNSCOM said Iraq had procured some missile
components since 1991, a violation of sanctions. (That month, UNSCOM retrieved
prohibited missile guidance gyroscopes, suitable for a 2,000 mile range missile, from Iraq’s
Tigris River, apparently procured from Russia’s defense-industrial establishment.) UNSCOM
also had evidence that Iraq, after the Gulf war, conducted secret flight tests and conducted
research on missiles of prohibited ranges. Iraq is making progress in developing permittedrange
missiles – the Ababil and Samoud programs – according to the January 2002 CIA
report to Congress and, prior to Desert Fox, UNSCOM had been monitoring about 63
missile sites and 159 items of equipment, as well as 2,000 permitted missiles. U.S. military
officials said after Desert Fox that the bombing had set back Iraq’s missile program by two
years, damaging production facilities at Taji, Ibn al-Haythim, Al Kindi, and Al Karama.
Human Rights/War Crimes Issues
U.S. and U.N. human rights reports since the Gulf war have repeatedly described Iraq
as a gross violator of human rights. In 1994, the Clinton Administration said it might, at
some point, present a case against Iraq to the International Court of Justice under the 1948
Genocide Convention. U.N. Rapporteur for Iraq Max Van der Stoel’s February 1994 report
said that Convention might be violated by Iraq’s abuses against the Shiite “Marsh Arabs” in
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12
13 | 14 | 15 | 16
|
