UNITED NATIONS
UNITED NATIONS SPECIAL COMMISSION 
The Executive Chairman

22 July 1998 

His Excellency
Mr. Sergey V. Lavrov
President of the Security Council
United Nations


Excellency,
  I write to inform you, and through you, the members of the Security 
Council of an incident which occurred during a recent inspection.
   On Saturday 18 July an inspection team (UNSCOM 244) led by Ms. 
Gabriele Kraatz-Wadsack sought to inspect the headquarters of the Iraqi 
Air Force.  This team's mission was to seek information and, in 
particular, documentation to assist in verifying the disposition of 
Iraq's chemical and biological weapons programme.  UNSCOM 244 had been 
proceeding relatively smoothly and Iraq had provided the necessary 
access at previous sites.  At this particular site Iraq declared it to 
be sensitive.  The expanded modalities for inspection of sensitive sites 
were then employed.
   During the inspection, the operations room of the Operations Command 
of the Iraqi Air Force was declared especially sensitive by Iraq.  Only 
the Chief Inspector, one other inspector and an interpreter, were 
admitted.  In this room, they examined a safe containing a number of 
files.  One of the files contained a listing of munitions expended by 
the Iraqi Air Force.
   On examination, it became evident that, together with the 
conventional munitions detailed, four particular types of other 
munitions were included.  They were denoted as "special."  Those types 
have been dec1ared by Iraq to have been used for chemical and biological 
warfare agent delivery.
    Obtaining a verifiable material balance of such non-conventional 
munitions has been a high priority of the Commission.  In this context, 
Iraq has repeatedly denied the existence of any documents on this 
subject.  In fact, in its October 1997 report to the Security Council 
(see table on page 11 of S/1997/774 dated 6 October 1997), the 
Commission indicated that more than l00,000 filled special munitions 
consumed in the time-frame 1981-1988, remained unaccounted for.   No 
documents or information on the consumption of such munitions has been 
provided by Iraq.
   The Chief Inspector initially decided that, rather than taking 
possession of the document, a copy would be made. The senior Iraqi 
representative present agreed that the document could be copied.  He 
later changed his mind, saying that the Commission's inspectors could 
only take notes or copy the document with certain sections blacked-out. 
This was unacceptable to the Chief Inspector who explained that the 
Commission had the right, in accordance with Council resolutions and the 
Plan for Ongoing Monitoring and Verification to examine, copy or remove 
any record, data, information or documentation relevant to its 
activities. The Iraqi representative then seized the document from the 
Chief Inspector and said that the team could not view the documents 
further.  The Chief Inspector protested Iraq's decision and informed me 
of the events.
   I was subsequently telephoned by Gen. Amer Rashid, Minister of Oil.  
While not prejudicing the Commission's rights as laid down by the 
Counci1, I agreed to Gen. Rashid's proposal that the document in 
question could be jointly sealed by UNSCOM and Iraq and stored in the 
custody of Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate, pending my visit to 
Baghdad (2 August - 5 August) when it could be reviewed by me and the 
Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Tariq Aziz.
    Iraq's actions are in contravention of the Commission's fundamental 
right to examine, to determine the relevance of and to remove any 
document. As you are aware, resolution 707 (1991), paragraph 3 (ii) 
"demands that Iraq allow the Special Commission, the IAEA and their 
inspection teams immediate, unconditional, and unrestricted access to 
any and all areas, facilities, equipment, records and means of 
transportation which they wish to inspect."   In addition, the 
Commission's Plan for Ongoing Monitoring and Verification, endorsed by 
resolution 715 (1991) (S/22871 Rev. 1), makes clear in paragraphs 2 (e) 
and 5 (a) of Annex I that the Commission has the right to secure full 
and free access at any time to material and other items, including 
documentation which, in its judgement, may be necessary for its 
monitoring and verification activities and also has the right to 
request, receive, examine, copy and remove any record, data, information 
or documentation.  These rights which have been reaffirmed in 
resolutions 1115 and 1134 (1997)) and Iraq's corresponding obligations 
must be maintained.  This is important not only for the Commission's 
disarmament activities, but also if ongoing monitoring and verification 
is to be effective and the Council can have confidence that Iraq is 
fulfilling its obligations.
   This incident, to which only a temporary solution has been found, 
demonstrates the importance of inspections especially in circumstances 
in which Iraq's claims are false and/or unable to be verified and, the 
crucial nature of the rights the Council has assigned to UNSCOM.
   I intend to recall those rights to the Government of Iraq during my 
forthcoming visit and request again, that relevant documents, including 
the one presently at issue, be provided to the Commission.  I will keep 
the Council informed of the outcome in this matter.
   Finally, the provision of documents remains the most important step 
Iraq can take to speed the completion of the necessary disarmament 
tasks.  The incident of 18 July was consistent with the point I made to 
the Council on 24 June to the effect that UNSCOM is convinced that 
highly relevant documents continue to exist in Iraq, in the possession 
of the Government of Iraq.
    Accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration.  
Richard Butler
[signed]