IRAQ: Baghdad Admits to Biological Weapons, U.N. Officials Say

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 5 1995 (IPS) - Iraq built and maintained a substantial arsenal of toxic biological compounds prior to the 1991 Gulf War, U.N. officials have revealed.

After four years of denying such a capability, senior Iraqi officials told the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM), which monitors Iraq’s weaponry, that it once possessed offensive biological weapons.

Chief among them are ‘chlostrydium botulium,’ which produces botulism, and ‘bacillus anthracis,’ the agent that causes anthrax.

But one UNSCOM official, speaking to IPS on condition of anonymity, added, “We have no information, nor have we any evidence, of (toxic) agent in Iraq at this time … nor any indication of its use.”

In a letter to the U.N. Security Council, UNSCOM Chairman Rolf Ekeus said that Dr. Taha Rihab, said by Iraq to be the director of the nation’s biological weapons programme, admitted Baghdad’s capabilities during Ekeus’s visit to Baghdad last week.

According to Rihab, Iraq started to build chemical warfare agents at a military site in Muthanna in late 1985. By the middle of 1988, Baghdad possessed enough toxic agents to begin large- scale production of offensive biological weaponry.

Ekeus is now awaiting a formal, written report from Iraq to follow Rihab’s oral confession. UNSCOM officials expect a complete written report to be sent to them by the end of July.

“This is an important step that Iraq has taken, and it’s a positive step,” said Charles Duelfer, UNSCOM’s deputy chairman.

But although Iraq’s admission of its offensive biological weaponry has satisfied the U.N. monitors after years of a cat-and- mouse search for evidence of biological programmes, UNSCOM still faces a problem in accounting for Iraq’s toxic agents.

“Iraq claims to have destroyed all the produced (toxic) agent by Oct 1990,” UNSCOM spokesman Tim Trevan said. But many diplomats here privately doubt that Baghdad did so, since nations do not destroy their weapons immediately before fighting a war.

In the past, Iraq has denied weapons programmes or claimed to have already scrapped its weapons of mass destruction. But several times, UNSCOM found some undestroyed weapons which were only scrapped after the U.N. monitors detected them.

Referring to Iraq’s promises to destroy weapons which later were not borne out by evidence, one U.N. official said on condition of anonymity, “That’s been a problem we’ve had all across the board. It’s very difficult to verify the quantities that have been destroyed.”

Baghdad must scrap all its chemical, biological, nuclear and long-range missile weapons capability under the terms of the 1991 cease-fire of its short-lived war with a U.S.-led international force following its invasion the previous year of Kuwait.

Until UNSCOM verifies that it has done so, Iraq will continue to suffer a U.N. embargo which has now been in effect for five years. A clean bill of health for its weapons programme will allow a lifting of the U.N. oil embargo that has prevented Iraq from selling the main prop of its economy.

Ekeus noted last month that, except for its biological programme, Iraq has complied fully in allowing UNSCOM to verify the scrapping of its mass weaponry.

“If it wanted at all to have the oil embargo lifted, it had to come clean on the biological programme,” one U.N. official asserted. He added, “In the past, Iraq officials have not been shy in saying, ‘What’s in it for us?”‘

Significantly, the meeting last week at which Rihab admitted Iraq’s past biological weapons capability was chaired on Iraq’s side by Gen. Amer Rashid, Iraq’s oil minister.

But there are still many steps to be taken before Iraq can gain a clean bill of health from UNSCOM, let alone a lifting of the oil embargo. The monitors need to account for all the biological capabilities Iraq had produced by 1990.

Last month, Ekeus warned the Security Council that UNSCOM had evidence of more than 17 tonnes of unaccounted biological ‘growth media,’ necessary to produce the toxic agents.

“Our past experience has led us to believe there may be problems,” Duelfer said. “It will take us some length of time to verify this. How long the process is will depend on how good the (Iraqi government’s) information is.”

Also, the knowledge that Iraq could produce anthrax and botulisms may discourage even its allies on the U.N. Security Council. Few nations will call for lifting the oil embargo until Baghdad can now prove it has completely scrapped its biological arsenal.

Ambassador David Hannay of Britain, which opposes lifting the embargo, said Iraq’s admission makes it more imperative to verify the complete destruction of Baghdad’s major weaponry.

“It’s obviously an important admission,” Hannay said. “It’s lamentable that it has taken Iraq four years to admit this.”