Iraq presented to the rest of the world Saturday a mass of documents detailing its nuclear, chemical and biological activities and formally declaring to the United Nations that it has no weapons of mass destruction.
Iraqi officials displayed the giant declaration, totaling more than 12,000 pages, to the international media at mid-afternoon.
Reporters were shown bound copies of volumes devoted separately to nuclear, chemical, biological and missile activities titled in English, "Currently Accurate, Full and Complete Declarations." The mass of paper, in volumes spread across the table, was accompanied by computer disks, presumably with additional information.
"We have absolutely no weapons of mass destruction," Lt. Gen. Hossam Mohammed Amin, the Iraqi official who oversaw production of the declaration, told reporters.
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, meanwhile, apologized to the people of Kuwait for his 1990 invasion. He also assailed Kuwait's leaders, saying the neighboring country was under U.S. occupation and working with foreigners to attack his regime.
"We apologize to God about any act that has angered Him in the past and that was held against us, and we apologize to you (the Kuwaitis) on the same basis," Saddam said.
But he accused Kuwaiti officials of turning the country's oil wealth into their own personal wealth and depositing them "in foreign banks under foreign control." He said Kuwait's leaders were working "with foreigners" to attack Iraq, and he referred to Kuwait, where thousands of U.S. troops have been based since the 1991 war, as being under American occupation.
"As you can see, the foreigners are occupying your country in a direct occupation," he said. "And as you know, when the foreigners occupy a country, they don't only desecrate the soil, but also the soul, religion and mind." (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
