KYIV, September 25 – The Ukrainian government denied Tuesday that it sold a radar system to Iraq in violation of United Nations sanctions, only hours before the U.S. State department announced it had definitive evidence that President Leonid Kuchma personally approved the sale.
“The Ukrainian president has repeatedly stated that his country has sold neither military weapons nor military technology to Iraq,” Kuchma’s press service said in a statement.
Kuchma said his government had sent an open letter to the head of the U.N. Security Council “a few days ago,” requesting the creation of a special commission to investigate Ukraine’s possible role in arms supplies to Iraq. He said U.S. experts would also be invited to conduct inspections.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Serhiy Borodenkov, insisted that arms deals with Baghdad were impossible. “Ukraine, with U.S. assistance, has developed an expert monitoring system over the nonproliferation of sensitive technologies, which makes their sale and delivery impossible by the production stage,” Borodenkov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.
But Washington announced Tuesday that it has confirmed the authenticity of audio tapes containing clandestine recordings of conversations in July 2000 between Kuchma and Valery Malev, the former head of the Ukrainian arms export agency, approving the sale of Kolchuha radar systems to Iraq.
The sale of Kolchuha radar to Baghdad is particularly sensitive ahead of threatened U.S. attacks as it can detect approaching aircraft without tipping off their pilots. An analysis of the recording, which was made secretly by one of Kuchma’s bodyguards, “has led us to re-examine our policy toward Ukraine, in particular toward President Kuchma,” State Department spokeswoman Lynn Cassel said.
“We view the recordings’ authentication with the utmost concern since it implicates President Kuchma in seeking to transfer a sophisticated detection system to Iraq in violation of U.N. security council resolutions,” the State Department said.
Hryhory Omelchenko, a Ukrainian opposition lawmaker and former security operative in charge of a parliamentary commission investigating the case, claims to have similar evidence proving that Kuchma and other high-ranking officials were involved in military deals with Iraq that violated U.N. sanctions. He has said there are four Ukrainian-made Kolchuha radar installations in Iraq. He did not explain the source of his information.
The State Department said that “while we have not physically observed the Kolchuha system in Iraq, we continue to assess some information that suggests it may be there,” Cassel added.
Meanwhile, Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz appealed to Ukraine’s parliament on Tuesday to address the issue of Ukraine’s alleged arms sales to Iraq, but lawmakers ignored him.
As a result of the evidence implicating Kuchma, the U.S. government suspended US $ 54 million in aid to Ukraine, about 30 percent of total U.S. assistance to the former Soviet republic under the Freedom Support Act, a U.S. embassy official said. U.S. funds to guard against the spread of nuclear weapons technology and other programs will continue, Cassel said.
Hisham A. Ibrahim, second in command at Iraq’s embassy in Ukraine, refused to comment on the issue. When he was ambassador in July, he flatly denied reports that Baghdad had acquired weapons from Kyiv, but underscored his government’s interest in Ukrainian military technology.
