Banned weapons material missing from Iraq
UN inspectors have been blocked from returning to Iraq since the US-led war in 2003 so they have been using satellite photos to see what happened to the sites that were subject to UN monitoring because their equipment had both civilian and military uses.
In a report to the UN Security Council obtained yesterday, acting chief weapons inspector Demetrius Perricos said imagery analysts had identified 109 sites that had been emptied of equipment to varying degrees, up from 90 reported in March.
The report also provided much more detail about the amount and types of equipment at the sites, and the percentage of items that are no longer at the places where UN inspectors monitored them.
From the imagery analysis, Mr Perricos said analysts at the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission which he heads had concluded that biological sites were less damaged than chemical and missile sites.
He said the so-called dual use equipment and material missing from the sites could be used for legitimate purposes.
“However, they can also be utilised for prohibited purposes if in a good state of repair and integrated in a production line in a suitable environment,” he said.
Mr Perricos said equipment and material could have been moved elsewhere in Iraq, sold as scrap, melted down or purchased by someone else. He said inspectors also could not determine what may be inside buildings where roofs are intact and satellite imagery can’t penetrate.
The commission previously reported the discovery of some equipment and material from the sites in scrapyards in Jordan and the Dutch port of Rotterdam.
Mr Perricos said analysts found that 53 of the 98 vessels that could be used for a wide range of chemical reactions had disappeared.
“Due to its characteristics, this equipment can be used for the production of both commercial chemicals and chemical warfare agents and their precursors,” he said.
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