IRAQI PRESIDENTIAL SITES

Early day motion 571, tabled 5 February 2004 by Paul Flynn (Labour). Signed by 16 members.

That this House notes the contradiction between the Iraq September dossier which states on page 34 that 'In December 1997 Richard Butler reported to the United Nations Security Council that Iraq had created a new category of sites, Presidential and sovereign, from which it claimed that UNSCOM inspectors would henceforth be barred. The terms of the ceasefire in 1991 foresaw no such limitation. However, Iraq consistently refused to allow UNSCOM inspectors access to any of these eight Presidential sites', and the Answer given to the honourable member for Newport West on 15th September 2003 that a special team of inspectors, with 20 senior diplomats acting as observers, was established in March 1998 to carry out inspections at eight Presidential sites, that the inspection mission, UNSCOM 243, visited Radwaniya on 26th and 27th March, Tikrit on 28th March, Mosul and Jabal Makhul on 29th march, Tharthar and Basrah on 30th March and the Republican Palace and Sijood sites in Baghdad on 1st and 2nd April, and that the inspectors' report was subsequently published as a United Nations document.

Signatures by party: Labour 11, Liberal Democrat 2, Labour/Co-operative 1, Plaid Cymru 1, Scottish National Party 1.