ACCESSION NUMBER:00000

FILE ID:96061301.NNE

DATE:06/13/96

TITLE:13-06-96  SECURITY COUNCIL DEMANDS IRAQ LET INSPECTORS INTO WEAPON SITES



TEXT:

(Unanimously adopts resolution)  (570)

By Judy Aita

USIA United Nations Correspondent



United Nations -- The Security Council June 12 unanimously deplored

Baghdad's refusal to allow U.N. weapons experts to inspect various

sites and demanded that Iraq cooperate fully with the U.N. Special

Commission overseeing the destruction of Iraqi weapons (UNSCOM).



The council unanimously adopted a resolution containing the demands

after Iraq flatly refused to allow a team of weapons experts looking

for documents, missiles or missile launchers and material relating to

nuclear weapons programs into two Republican Guard sites in two days.



"Let me be clear, this council must not tolerate challenges to its

authority. The Iraqi regime must not be allowed to interfere with the

work of the U.N. Special Commission -- UNSCOM," said U.S. Ambassador

Madeleine Albright.



"This is why it is so important that our message be swift and strong

-- and this resolution meets those tests," said Albright, who was a

co-sponsor of the resolution.



"Blocking UNSCOM inspectors from an entire category of suspect sites

is a new situation and is a matter of grave concern to my government,"

Albright said.



The 54-member UNSCOM team is headed by inspector Nikita Smidovich of

Russia and includes ballistic and nuclear experts. In addition to

attempting to visit a Republican Guard site west of Baghdad and

another guard site in Baghdad, the team has been making spot visits of

industrial facilities.



Under a series of resolutions passed at the end of the Gulf war, Iraq

is to be rid of all chemical, biological, nuclear and ballistic

weapons and a long-term monitoring program is to be established to

ensure that Iraq does not re-acquire the banned weapons. UNSCOM must

certify to the council when those conditions exist before the economic

sanctions and oil embargo will be lifted.



A team headed by Smidovich was involved in a similar series of

standoffs in March.



"There is a high probability Iraq is hiding items which we are

convinced still exist in the country," UNSCOM Chairman Rolf Ekeus told

journalists after a private meeting with the council. He would not say

precisely what the inspectors were looking for.



Ekeus, however, reminded journalists that one of the sites was

searched five years ago after a standoff and equipment for enriching

uranium for a nuclear weapons project was discovered.



Iraq insists that it will not allow U.N. inspectors to enter sites

that it feels are crucial to its sovereignty and national security.



Albright said that "Iraq's assertion that its security is threatened

by unarmed inspections is laughable."



"It is not the inspectors who threaten Iraq, but Iraq which threatens

the region," Albright said. "The invasion and occupation of Kuwait,

the campaign against the Kurds and Shia and the use of terrorism by

Iraq are ample and incontrovertible proof that this regime still poses

a serious threat to the security of the region."



The resolution demands that "Iraq cooperate fully with the Special

Commission ... and that the Government of Iraq allow the Special

Commission inspection teams immediate, unconditional and unrestricted

access to any and all areas, facilities, equipment, records and means

of transportation which they wish to inspect."



The council called Iraq's action "a clear violation of the provisions"

of the three council resolutions dealing with the weapons destruction

and long-term monitoring.

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