1.1 | UK
Iraq strategy 1990 to 2000
163.
In 1991, Iraq
had declared 30 chemical warheads for its ballistic missiles
which
were
destroyed by April 1993.68
164.
Despite the
provisions of resolution 687, which stated that prohibited items
should
be declared
and subsequently dealt with under international supervision, Iraq
admitted
in March
1992 that a decision had been taken in late June 1991 to carry out
a unilateral
programme
to destroy proscribed equipment, including missile launchers,
munitions and
165.
Iraq disclosed
that it had concealed “the greater part of its operational missile
force
(85 …
missiles, over 130 warheads, both conventional and chemical, 8
operational
launchers
…) and a significant amount of other proscribed items and
materials”, which
it had
“unilaterally and secretly destroyed in late July 1991”. Iraq also
claimed that the
destruction
“had not been fully documented or recorded”.
166.
In June 1992,
the JIC judged that Iraq retained a “potential BW agent
production
capability
and has hidden BW weapons”.70
167.
UNSCOM
subsequently reported that the decision to destroy proscribed
weapons
and
equipment had been taken by a high-level committee, of which Iraq’s
Deputy Prime
Minister,
Mr Tariq Aziz, was a member, to:
•
“provide
only a portion of their extant weapons stocks, with an
emphasis
on those
which were least modern”;
•
“retain
production capability and the ‘know-how’ documentation
necessary
to revive
programmes when possible”;
•
“conceal
the full extent of chemical weapons programmes, including
its
VX project,
and retain production equipment and raw materials”;
•
“conceal
the number and type of BW and CW warheads for proscribed
missiles”;
•
“conceal
indigenous long-range missile production, and retain
production
capabilities,
specifically with respect to guidance systems and missile
engines”;
and
•
“conceal
the very existence of its offensive biological weapons programmes
and
retain all
production capabilities”.71
68
UN Security
Council, 11 October 1996, ‘Report of the Secretary-General on
the activities of the Special
Commission
established by the Secretary-General pursuant to paragraph 9 (b)
(i) of resolution 687 (1991)’
(S/1996/848).
69
UN Security
Council, 11 October 1996, ‘Report of the Secretary-General on
the activities of the Special
Commission
established by the Secretary-General pursuant to paragraph 9 (b)
(i) of resolution 687 (1991)’
(S/1996/848).
70
Review of
Intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction [“The
Butler Report”], 14 July 2004, HC 898,
page
48.
71
UN Security
Council, ‘Letter dated 25 January 1999 from the Executive
Chairman of the Special
Commission
established by the Secretary-General pursuant to paragraph 9 (b)
(i) of Security Council
resolution
687 (1991) addressed to the President of the Security Council’
(S/1999/94), Appendix IV.
53