Iraq Blasts Inspector’s ‘Provocative’ Letters Seeking Data

In its first response to U.N. weapons inspectors since the U.S. canceled threatened airstrikes last weekend, Iraq on Friday labeled “provocative” a request for new information about its armaments programs.

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry termed “unprofessional” three letters from chief U.N. weapons inspector Richard Butler seeking further details of chemical, biological and missile programs.

In contrast to last weekend’s tense Security Council meetings that won concessions from Iraq just hours ahead of the planned airstrikes, the initial reaction at United Nations headquarters Friday was low-key.

U.S. diplomats said they had received two letters of response from Riyad Qaysi, undersecretary to Iraq’s foreign minister, and termed them “insufficient.”

“Iraq must further give sufficient responses,” said a U.S. spokesman, adding that Butler will press for clarifications. However, no meetings of the Security Council were scheduled to consider the Iraqi government letters.

Western diplomats said it will take time to analyze Iraq’s reply.

The government of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein charged that the approach of the weapons inspectors was “contrary to the prevailing trend in the Security Council” to conduct a comprehensive review of its compliance with disarmament resolutions.

“The timing of this request during the period of preparation for the comprehensive review is rather surprising and raises questions with regard to the position of UNSCOM on the comprehensive review and its objectives,” Qaysi said.

The Iraqi official charged that Butler’s request for additional information “seems to be provocative rather than professional.”

The Iraqi government has been seeking Security Council backing for such a comprehensive review of its compliance in the hopes of ending crippling sanctions imposed after the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

As the head of UNSCOM, the special U.N. commission charged with dismantling Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, Butler earlier in the week sent the Hussein government three letters about the regime’s arms programs.

Iraq answered that no records exist about its attempts to produce deadly VX nerve gas and that no inventory was made of the regime’s destruction of rocket propellants at the end of the Persian Gulf War.

Iraq has told weapons inspectors that it made VX but that the agent was not stable enough to be put into weapons. Several Western governments have conducted laboratory tests for traces of VX on warheads destroyed in Iraq. Results have been contradictory.

Iraq’s reply Friday shed light on a major thrust of the inspectors, who have been seeking to determine how many weapons of mass destruction Iraq still had after its 1980-88 war against Iran.

A document discovered in the Iraqi air force’s headquarters last summer described armaments used against Iran that were capable of carrying chemical weapons. Inspectors believe that Iraq exaggerated the number of such weapons it used in that war--and thus had a bigger arsenal in the 1990s than it has claimed.

In its reply to Butler on Friday, the Iraqi government sought to portray the document found by weapons inspectors at the air force headquarters as a low-level inventory made by a noncommissioned officer.

“The so-called document is merely a handwritten paper containing a compilation of figures of munitions disposed of in the years 1983-1988, made by a noncommissioned officer for his own use at the time, namely for the purpose of monitoring inventories of munitions at various stores,” the Iraqi government said.

Hussein’s government said a missile force officer’s diary, which inspectors are seeking, appeared to have been destroyed, along with some personal papers. It said documents used as research material for another diary kept by one of its generals was also destroyed.

In its answer to Butler, the Iraqi government added that other documents the chief weapons inspector requested either do not exist or are a repetition of previous requests.