UN shuts down Iraq weapons inspection unit

United Nations, June 30: As the United Nations officially disbanded its weapons inspections unit for Iraq today, the United States again defended faulty intelligence it had cited to justify its 2003 invasion of the country.

Despite US and British suspicions and assertions that Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction, no evidence of active programs to make chemical, biological or nuclear arms has been found.

In a final report yesterday, the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, or UNMOVIC, said its on-the-ground inspections had proven better than intelligence assessments by individual countries.

After the UN Security Council approved a US-British resolution to shut down the inspection unit, the US ambassador to the United Nations conceded Washington had overestimated Iraq's weapons capability before the invasion.

But Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said that should be set against the fact that Iraq's capabilities were underestimated before the 1991 Gulf War.

''In the events leading to the liberation of Iraq and subsequently, there of course was a mistake -- assessments, projections that went in the other direction, overestimating what existed,'' Khalilzad told reporters.

''We've all learned lessons in hindsight. One would have hoped to have had in both cases more precise information.'' Critics of the invasion accuse the Bush administration of being selective with prewar intelligence and of falsely linking Saddam to Islamic militants from al Qaeda.

While the UN unit found no active weapons programs, Saddam -- who was executed in December -- had ordered the use of mustard gas and nerve agents in the 1980s during a campaign against ethnic Kurds that killed tens of thousands of people.

Khalilzad said the UN inspectors played a ''very important role'' in destroying banned Iraqi weapons since 1991, but added: ''Some of the destruction took place by other means, as well as during the war to liberate Kuwait and the activities that have taken place since the liberation of Iraq.'' He said the overestimate of Iraq's capabilities came at a time of great concern because of the September 11 attacks on the United States by al Qaeda in 2001.

''We have to recognize this took place in the context of post 9/11 where concerns were heightened about the potential of weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands of terrorists,'' Khalilzad said.

'Historic Day'

The resolution to shut down the weapons inspection unit was passed by 14 votes to none, with Russia abstaining. Russia had argued that US reports on Iraq would not suffice and the UN inspectors were needed to confirm Iraq's disarmament.

The resolution terminated the mandate of UNMOVIC, once in charge of ridding Iraq of chemical and biological arms and long-range missiles, and that of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, in charge of nuclear arms.

Since the 2003 invasion, UNMOVIC experts have been studying satellite photos and reporting on contaminated wreckage being sold abroad from former weapons plants.

Iraqi Ambassador Hamid al-Bayati said it was a historic day and called on the Security Council to turn its attention next to lifting Iraq's obligation to pay compensation to Kuwait for Saddam's invasion that sparked the first Gulf War.

''It was Saddam's crimes and the Iraqi people should not be held responsible for these crimes,'' Bayati told reporters after the vote, adding that Iraq was paying 5 per cent of its annual revenues in compensation, or around 2 billion dollars a year.

UNMOVIC acting executive chairman Demetrius Perricos told the council that recent use of chemicals such as chlorine in bomb attacks in Iraq were a sign of the need to stay vigilant in safeguarding even small quantities of chemical materials.

''The possibility of non-state actors getting their hands on other, more toxic, agents is real,'' Perricos said.

The resolution calls on Iraq to report in one year's time on its adherence to nonproliferation treaties and efforts to ensure no stockpiles of banned materials remain at large.

Reuters

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