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Abstract

The question of iraqi biological weapons is as delicate an issue today as it was fifteen years ago. Although it is now a certified fact that Iraq did indeed develop such a program as early as the 1980’s, this was only officially recognized by Baghdad after the Gulf War in 1991, during the first UNSCOM inspection. The latter, which pursued its work up until 1998, did not however manage to shed full light either on what happened to the known or suspected stocks of weapons or biological agents, or with regard to the technical, human or logistical capacities retained by Iraq in spite of the inspections. The situation did not really clear up until the resumption of inspections at the end of 2002 by UNMOVIC, and the few months during which it was able to carry out its task, before the March 2003 war, failed by far to shed light on all the questions which had remained unanswered. While the non-discoveries of the groups of inspectors in Iraq allow one to hope that this may be proof of the success of the policy of containment undertaken by the international community, they still do not constitute a full guarantee in this respect.