The Hindu : Onus on Iraq: Blix

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 21, 2002

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International

Onus on Iraq: Blix

By Atul Aneja

MANAMA (BAHRAIN) Nov. 20. Stressing that the U.N. inspection team would not accept Iraqi statements at face value, Chief U.N. weapons inspector, Hans Blix, has said that Baghdad must prove that it does not possess weapons of mass destruction.

Rounding up his two-day visit to Baghdad where he met Iraqi officials including the Foreign Minister, Naji Sabri, Mr. Blix said that Iraq's assertion that it did not possess them, "must be convincingly shown by documentation, by evidence.'' He added, "We don't think that has yet been convincingly done.'' Mr. Blix urged Iraq to look again its nuclear, chemical and biological "stocks and stores'' to ensure that it has no weapons to report.

Iraq, under a recent U.N. Security Council resolution has to list its mass destruction weapons and infrastructure by December 8. While preliminary inspections are likely to begin by November 27, the probe would be in full swing after December 8. The U.N. inspectors are expected to submit a report of its findings within two-months of this date. Iraq has, so far, said that it would comply with the U.N. timetable. Mr. Blix, on arrival from Iraq, said at Larnaca that Baghdad had agreed to cooperate with the inspections.

"We had good discussions with representatives of the Iraqi government and (they) assured us they will fully implement the resolution and cooperate with us, so it was a constructive visit,'' he said. Mr. Blix, on his part, made two additional observations. First, he indicated that inspectors would take a very hard look at possible Iraqi stockpiles and capability to produce chemical weapons. He, in fact, made a special reference to Iraq's alleged production of mustard gas in the past and the need for accounting it. "The production of mustard gas is not like the production of marmalade,'' he said. "You must keep track of what you produced.'' Mr. Blix pointed out that Iraqi officials had reservations about reporting on "peaceful industries'' like chemicals output. Seven years of inspections in the 90s resulted in dismantling the Iraqi nuclear programme before an atomic bomb could be built. Large amounts of chemical and biological weapons were also destroyed along with longer-range missiles. But there have been suspicions that all chemical weapons were not eliminated and these may have become the basis for a revived programme that might have been undertaken since 1998, after the inspectors left. Second, Mr. Blix said that Iraqi cooperation could result in the lifting of crippling sanctions that have been imposed on Iraq since the Persian Gulf War.

These sanctions cannot be lifted unless the inspectors certify that Iraq is free of all mass destruction weapons. But, according to Mr. Blix, sanctions could be lifted in about a year's time, provided Baghdad cooperated. Mr. Blix pointed out that Iraq had agreed to the inspectors opening an office in the oil rich Iraqi enclave of Mosul.

Mosul, analysts say, could become the staging post for scanning the mass destruction weapons in northern Iraq. A day after controversial raids by U.S. planes, no aerial incident over the Iraqi "no fly zones" was reported on Tuesday. The U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, while in Kosovo countered the U.S. assertion that the use of anti-aircraft fire by Iraq appeared to have violated the recent Security Council resolution on Iraq. "I don't think the Council will say that this is in contravention of the resolution that was recently passed,'' Mr. Annan said.

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