Iraqis Tried to Develop Irradiated Arms, U.N. Told

In a new revelation about Iraq’s deadly arms program, chief U.N. weapons inspector Rolf Ekeus told the Security Council on Tuesday that Baghdad experimented with a controversial radiological weapon, one of the world’s rarest tools of warfare.

The weapon would take material heavily radiated in a reactor and disperse it into the air or over the ground to sicken or kill opposition forces. In its worst form, it would fry human lungs and result in an agonizing death. Many of the casualties from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear reactor explosion were due to the dispersal of highly radioactive particles.

The United Nations is still in the initial stages of uncovering details and does not yet know the extent or stage of Baghdad’s experiments. But recently uncovered documents show it was part of Iraq’s crash program to develop weapons of mass destruction.

“All we know at this stage is that the Iraqis were interested in irradiating material and then dispersing it with traditional means of explosives--bombs or artillery shells,” a U.N. official said Tuesday.

Few countries have even tried to develop radiological weapons. In the early 1980s, the United States and the Soviet Union jointly proposed a treaty to prohibit their use. But the treaty never got off the ground.

During the Korean War, the United States reportedly toyed with the idea of developing a radiological weapon but abandoned it as too unstable and complicated, arms experts said.

Radiological weapons are among the most dangerous to handle. “Most people considered it a pretty dumb weapon,” said Charles Duelfer, deputy chief U.N. arms inspector.

Radiological weapons are not covered under U.N. Resolution 687, which in 1991 called for destruction of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, comprising nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and ballistic missiles.

Although radiological weapons do not cause nuclear explosions, Ekeus told the Security Council that the arms might be covered by a broad interpretation of Resolution 707, which deals with the Iraqi nuclear programs.

In an interview, Ekeus said Iraq had not yet provided any of the necessary documents to support claims that it destroyed biological weapons or the precursors to VX, a highly lethal nerve agent.

“We haven’t seen the documentation, so that gives us cause for concern,” he said.

After the defection last summer of President Saddam Hussein’s son-in-law, who oversaw Iraq’s programs to develop weapons of mass destruction, Baghdad turned over more than 48 containers of documents it had hidden from U.N. arms inspectors for years.

Iraq turned over what it called the final and complete report on chemical and biological weapon programs last weekend, and a similar report on missiles is due at the end of this month. But U.N. officials are skeptical that Baghdad will come clean.