(16 Jan 2003)
1. SOUNDBITE: (English) Lieutenant General Hossam Mohammed Amin, Chief Iraqi liaison officer
"Very strange statement from Mister Hiro Ueki, the spokesman of UNMOVIC in Baghdad. We were astonished more than usual when we heard the spokesman from the IAEA in Vienna declaring that they found something which is very important and which is considered a violation of the Security Council resolutions. I would like to declare to you the findings and I ask the spokesman of UNMOVIC and the others, I challenge them to say anything that opposes what I am about to say to you. The story is the following: There are military storehouses, 250km south-east of Baghdad called Ukhaider storehouses, they belong to the army. And they consist of more than 100 bunkers. And they contain different types of ammunitions, military equipment etc. The inspection team which visited the warehouses inspected a lot of parts of these warehouses and they found out and they found some new boxes, I mean not new, old boxes but they are not opened boxes - sealed boxes - and they ask to open those boxes. When they opened it, it appeared that they are artillery rockets, calibre 122mm. They are not weapons of mass destruction as UNMOVIC spokesman inspired (said) and the IAEA talk about it - they are just artillery rockets of empty warheads. Those artillery rockets were imported in 1986 - therefore they are expired, they can not be used again since long time ago they expired - not now expired - I'm not sure, but at least before seven years, or more than 10 years, they were expired. They were forgotten in such huge storehouses and this is not the first time that the inspection team finds such findings. In 1997 UNSCOM inspection team, chemical inspection team, also found out similar rockets, the same time of the (?) in (?) site which was the establishment which produces the chemical agents in the passed prescribed programme. An Iraqi (?) declared this finding, UNSCOM destroyed those rockets and fulls top. They didn't declare that. So, if you compare this situation, the situation of UNSCOM and the situation of UNMOVIC, although UNSCOM was spying on Iraq and they were trying to create problems, but you can't imagine how the Americans pressure on this commission and how they want to make this finding a huge finding which relates to the mass destruction weapons, chemical or biological - it is neither chemical or biological, it is empty warheads - it is small artillery rockets - it is expired rockets, and they were forgotten without any intention to use them because they were expired since 10 years ago, thank you very much."
2. Wide shot of Amin
3. Various of commemorations at Al Moustasnrieh University in Baghdad, remembering start of First Gulf War (Iran-Iraq war)
STORYLINE:
The United Nations said it discovered empty chemical "warheads" Iraq had not told it about on Thursday, but an Iraqi official said the weapons were old artillery mentioned in its December declaration.
The inspectors said they found 11 empty chemical warheads in "excellent" condition at an ammunition storage area where they were inspecting bunkers built in the late 1990s, a U.N. spokesman reported.
They had not previously been declared by Iraq.
A 12th warhead, also of a 122 mm caliber, was found that requires further evaluation, according to the statement by Hiro Ueki, the spokesman for U.N. weapons inspectors in Baghdad.
"It was a discovery. They were not declared," Ueki told The Associated Press.
Amin was speaking in a news conference called hastily after the U.N. issued its written statement.
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: / ap_archive
Facebook: / aparchives
Instagram: / apnews
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
Информация по комментариям в разработке