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The controversial makeup of UNSCOM

Inspector

U.N. disputes Iraqi claim of U.S. dominance

November 8, 1997
Web posted at: 11:14 p.m. EST (0414 GMT)

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The latest crisis in Iraq centers on the makeup of the U.N. Special Commission, which governs the U.N. weapons inspection program.

Iraq has accused the commission, or UNSCOM, of being a tool of the United States and top-heavy with Americans. Not so, says Richard Butler, UNSCOM's chairman. Inspectors come from all over the world, from countries such as England, Egypt and Morocco.

UNSCOM is charged with ensuring that Iraq eliminate its weapons of mass destruction, a process that Iraq must complete before the United Nations will lift sanctions imposed after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

"The real issue is why Saddam has chosen this time to really stir up trouble."

— Barbara Starr of Jane's Defence Weekly

U.N. inspection teams have been prevented from inspecting suspected weapons sites because American monitors have been barred access.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz claimed that so far in 1997, Americans make up 32 percent of the commission, known as UNSCOM.

"The American participation in 1996 was 44 percent," Aziz said.

Butler disputes this. "We've got 15 nationalities in Baghdad now, of which the United States is only one. Six Americans there now, out of something like 100 people. I don't see how that becomes 40 percent."

Former UNSCOM chairman David Kaye said, "They range from nuclear physicists, weapons experts, language experts, experts in photography."

UNSCOM officials say the commission's leading experts are the very ones Iraq is complaining there aren't enough of, the Russians and the French.

Aziz claims the weapons inspectors get their marching orders from the United States. Iraq has accused American inspectors of staging a surprise inspection last year with the sole function of gaining intelligence on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein for the CIA.

"They cannot be satisfied unless the White House and the State Department and the Pentagon and the CIA tell them 'be satisfied,'" Aziz said.

Iraq originally vowed to expel the American inspectors by last Wednesday. But at the last minute, the government agreed to put off a decision until after a U.N. mediating team concluded its mission in Baghdad. The mediators left Baghdad on Friday.

The Middle East News Agency quoted a senior diplomatic source in Baghdad as saying that Iraq sent a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan demanding "a balancing of the number of inspectors and special commission officials to better reflect the permanent members of the Security Council."

It was unclear if by "balancing" the Iraqis meant they were ready to let U.S. inspectors stay in Baghdad, albeit in smaller numbers, or if they wanted the Americans to be replaced by a higher representation of the council's other permanent-member nations, Britain, France, Russia and China.

Barbara Starr of Jane's Defence Weekly said Saddam has successfully singled out the United States for his own political advantage. It is not unusual for UNSCOM inspectors to share information with coalition governments.

"Saddam knows this. The United Nations knows this. We know it. The real issue is why Saddam has chosen this time to really stir up trouble," Starr said.

Starr and others say that by making the United States the enemy, Saddam hopes to keep his rebellious military in check and to deflect attention from his ongoing effort to build chemical and biological weapons.

Correspondent Mary Ann McGann contributed to this report.

 
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