10/04/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-10168

ALLEGED ARMS SALES TO IRAQ

The United States recently froze some aid to Ukraine because of a recording on which President Leonid Kuchma is heard authorizing the transfer of radar systems to Iraq. The freeze on aid will remain in effect while the United States reviews its policy toward Ukraine. It affects approximately fifty-four million dollars earmarked this year for programs dealing with reforms in fiscal and commercial law, pensions, and government regulations. The suspension will not affect assistance to Ukraine’s private sector or military-to-military and nonproliferation assistance.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the decision to suspend aid to Ukraine was based on an analysis of a July 2000 recording of President Kuchma provided by one of his former bodyguards, Mykola Melnychenko [MEE-ko-lah mel-ni-CHEN-koh]. On the audio tape, Mr. Kuchma is heard authorizing the clandestine sale of "Kolchuga" [kol-CHOO-gah] radar systems to Iraq. The U.S. has concluded that the recording of the Ukrainian president is authentic.

Sales of such radar systems would be a clear violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 661, which prohibits any sale or supply of "weapons or any other military equipment" to Iraq. Equipment like the Kolchuga system could pose a threat to aircraft of the U.S.-led coalition patrolling the no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq.

The government of Ukraine has denied selling Iraq the radar systems and invited international experts to Ukraine to investigate the charges. But as State Department spokesman Boucher said, the government of Ukraine has not been candid on this issue. And U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Carlos Pascual has suggested Ukrainian officials may have destroyed or manipulated evidence of the radar sales.

Sales of such weapons systems to Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq would be inimical to the interests of civilized nations everywhere. The U.S. will send an investigative team to Ukraine to look into the matter.