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Inspecting Iraq

U.N. inspectors enter Iraqi presidential site

A convoy of U.N. arms inspectors and diplomats departs on a mission to inspect Iraqi presidential sites

March 26, 1998
Web posted at: 4:43 a.m. EST (0943 GMT)

BAGHDAD (Reuters) -- United Nations weapons inspectors entered Baghdad's Radwaniyah Palace on Thursday on their first visit to an Iraqi "presidential site" in seven years of work.

Witnesses saw a large convoy of U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) inspectors, accompanied by diplomats and Iraqi escorts, turn off Baghdad's airport road into a security area around the Radwaniyah site at 10 a.m. (0700 GMT).

The diplomats were accompanying the inspectors under an accord signed by Iraq last month which defused a major crisis and averted the threat of imminent air strikes against Iraq.

Under the accord Iraq pledged to allow UNSCOM inspectors, charged with dismantling its weapons of mass destruction, into the sites where they suspect Iraq may have concealed material related to its banned weapons programmes.

"I am hopeful, confident and optimistic that with goodwill on all sides we will be able to implement the memorandum of understanding signed by (U.N.) Secretary-General (Kofi Annan) and Iraq," Jayantha Dhanapala, the U.N. undersecretary for disarmament, said before he was due to lead the inspection.

'...assisting UNSCOM...' with diplomacy

An aerial view of the Radwaniya palace complex

The inspectors entered the Radwaniyah complex, on the edge of Saddam International Airport about 15 km (9 miles) west of central Baghdad, in a convoy of at least 20 UNSCOM vehicles and more than a dozen escort cars from Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate.

Twenty senior diplomats are gathered in Baghdad to accompany the inspectors, addressing Iraq's request that its symbols of national sovereignty be respected during the inspections.

They had said they all expected to accompany the inspectors on Thursday's mission because of the scale of the Radwaniyah complex, one of the largest of the eight presidential sites which has hosted visiting dignitaries.

U.N. diplomats on a bus en route to Radwaniya palace

"We will play the role of assisting UNSCOM as a means of guaranteeing the sovereignty and dignity of the country," Italian diplomat Pietro Cordone told reporters before heading to UNSCOM headquarters on the outskirts of Baghdad.

"We are observers, not inspectors," said Horst Holthoff, a retired German diplomat.

U.N. officials say Iraq was informed on Wednesday night that an inspection would be taking place on Thursday.

"We notified the Iraqis only yesterday evening. They don't know which one we are going to," one official said before the inspection started.

Low expectations for a surpise discovery

UNSCOM officials, who believe Iraq is still concealing material related to banned chemical, biological or ballistic weapons, say they have few expectations of finding any incriminating material on their first visits.

But they say the baseline inspections are important both to gather information for future checks and also to cement the principle of unfettered access for their work.

The "baseline" visits which aim to inspect and survey the eight presidential sites in detail for possible future inspections are expected to be completed by around April 5.

Diplomats said the inspectors would conduct detailed internal and external surveys of the sites while a helicopter surveyed them from the air. The sites, scattered from the Gulf port of Basra in southern Iraq to Mosul 950 km (600 miles) to the north, will be visited one by one.

Iraq last year said it had drawn a red line around the presidential sites and that the U.N. Special Commission inspectors, charged with dismantling its weapons of mass destruction, would never be allowed into them.

Its refusal to allow them access precipitated a crisis which almost triggered heavy punitive strikes from an armada of U.S. military forces gathered in the Gulf.

Iraq needs a clean bill of health from UNSCOM before economic sanctions, imposed for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, can be lifted.

Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

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