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Iraqi report could take weeks to digest
From Ronni Berke
UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- If past practice is any guide, the Iraqi weapons declaration expected Saturday could take days, if not weeks, for the United Nations to analyze fully. Diplomats and U.N. officials said they expect the declaration to be long -- perhaps hundreds or even thousands of pages -- similar to the 11 reports Baghdad submitted to the former inspection agency, the U.N. Special Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM). "They're talking thousands of pages," Iraqi Ambassador Mohammed Aldouri said when asked Tuesday about the size of the document. Aldouri did not know what language the report would be written in or how it would be delivered. In Vienna in October, Iraqi officials gave chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix their overdue declaration of "dual use" items in the form of four CD-ROMs holding several thousand pages of English. "Dual use" refers to equipment that could be for military or civilian use. The Security Council resolution passed November 8 requires Baghdad to submit "a currently accurate, full and complete declaration of all aspects of its programs to develop chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles" and other weapons delivery systems, as well as other chemical, biological and nuclear programs that Iraq claims are for non-military purposes. A deadline requires the declaration to go to the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspections Commission (UNMOVIC), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Security Council by Sunday, December 8. Iraq has promised the document by Saturday, one day early. (Full story) Aldouri said many pages would be devoted to a full accounting of chemicals used in the petroleum industry, some of which are considered "dual use." If it is delivered in Arabic, the United Nations would have to translate the report into five other official languages, including English. "This idea of declarations is not new," said UNMOVIC spokesman Ewen Buchanan. "This concept has underlain this process over the past years. That they should declare and inspectors should verify. We're back to the original concept." Security Council resolution 687, adopted April 8, 1991, which one U.N. official called "the mother of all Iraq resolutions," demanded that Iraq submit a declaration to the U.N. secretary-general of all its chemical, biological and missile programs within 15 days. The first Iraqi declaration, in 1991, said it had no biological weapons program. Inspectors said that declaration was proved untrue in 1995 when Baghdad admitted to UNSCOM it had a biological weapons program but had never produced biological warheads. Under UNSCOM's tenure, from 1991 to 1998, Iraq submitted 11 "full, final and complete disclosures" -- three chemical, five biological, and three missile -- to the weapons inspectors. The last biological disclosure by the Iraqis, in 1997, was more than 600 pages. A report on missiles filed the same year was more than 3,000 pages. By and large, the disclosures were usually in English, sometimes with annexes in Arabic. UNSCOM officials characterized them as them incomplete, inconsistent and often lacking in support documents and explanations. Diplomats said they will not be able to comment immediately on the new document. Jeremy Greenstock, Britain's ambassador to the United Nations, said Security Council members would send the information back to capitals for analysis and it would take several days to come to any conclusions about the declaration. "We're not going to rush this," he said. "This is just the next step, but it's a very important indication of how the Iraqis are going to play this." "We're not going to have an instant readout Monday morning," a U.N. official said. Diplomats and U.N. officials said the key to determining the veracity of the declaration would be to check for items that UNSCOM and other experts say were never accounted for by the Iraqis. Among the outstanding items are 500 mustard gas shells, 3,000 tons of precursor chemicals and 360 tons of chemical weapons agents, according to the British Foreign Office.
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