ACCESSION



ACCESSION NUMBER:239399

FILE ID:PO-104

DATE:08/17/92

TITLE:U.N. TEAM FINDS SIGNIFICANT NEW MISSILE DATA IN IRAQ (08/17/92)

TEXT:*92081704.POL

U.N. TEAM FINDS SIGNIFICANT NEW MISSILE DATA IN IRAQ



(Inspectors have no difficulties at sites)  (540)

By Judy Aita

USIA United Nations Correspondent

United Nations -- U.N. weapons inspectors have found "significant"

information on Iraqi ballistic weapons programs, the Special Commission on

the destruction of Iraq's weapons said August 17.



A spokesman for the commission, Tim Trevan, said that the 22-member U.N.

team "visited all the sites it was instructed to....It conducted successful

inspections at all those sites and was not denied access at any of them" by

Iraqi officials.  He added that no ministries were on the list examined in

the past week.



Trevan said the commission will discuss what the team found after the data

collected is analyzed more carefully.  However, he confirmed that the team,

led by Russian missile expert Nikita Smidovich, "found significant

additional information concerning the ballistic missiles program."



The inspections were the first since the end of the three-week standoff at

the Ministry of Agriculture building in Baghdad.  Iraq, asserting

inspections in its ministries would violate its sovereignty, refused to

admit a U.N. team into the facility last month -- and in recent days Iraqi

officials have reasserted their opposition to inspections at its

ministries.



Meanwhile, members of the gulf coalition have threatened to use force if

Iraq again attempts to bar inspectors from sites the commission feels might

have information about the chemical, biological, nuclear, and ballistic

weapons programs that must be destroyed under the U.N.-brokered cease-fire

which ended hostilities in the Persian Gulf war.



And Trevan, who noted that commission policy prevents the listing of sites

either before or after an inspection, insisted that U.N. inspectors will

target ministry buildings if they feel weapons information is located

there.



"We have the right to go anywhere in Iraq at any time when we have reason to

believe that a site may have information relating to our mandate," Trevan

said.  "And we will exercise that right wherever we need to."



"It's not the Iraqi government that decides where we go or what our rights

are.  We have been given our rights by the Security Council," he said.

"Neither we (the commission members) nor the Iraqi government can change

1hose rights.  It's only the Security Council that can."



The commission "clearly...established our rights" to enter ministry

buildings on two different occasions:  the Ministry of Industry and

Minerals in February and the Ministry of Agriculture in August, Trevan

added.



Asked if the United States had asked the team to visit certain sites, Trevan

said that the commission receives "information and advice from a variety of

sources -- individuals, organizations, and governments -- and a lot of that

relates to sites where we might do inspections."



"We make no secret of the fact that the U.S. government is one of our main

supporters in our operations," he added.  "But that said, it is the

commission that analyzes the information that comes in; it is the

commission that decides whether, when, and where to inspect.  And the basis

on which we do that...is purely our mandate and whether that is an

effective way of filling the mandate."



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