Poland Says It Was Mistaken in Report That Troops Found Newly Built French Missiles in Iraq

Associated Press ^ | Oct 4, 2003 | Beata Pasek Associated Press Writer

[UncleJeff]

WARSAW, Poland (AP) - After a protest from French President Jacques Chirac, Poland said Saturday it had been mistaken in reporting that its troops found new French-made anti-aircraft misiles in central Iraq. Chirac swiftly denied selling Iraq weapons in violation of the U.N. weapons embargo imposed against Saddam Hussein's regime in 1990. The claims, he said, "are as false today as they were yesterday."

An aide to the Polish prime minister said an initial report that the Roland missiles found by Polish troops days ago were produced in 2003 was incorrect. France said it stopped producing any type of Roland missile in 1993.

Prime Minister Leszek Miller met with Chirac twice to explain the mistake, said the aide, Tadeusz Iwinski. The two leaders were in Rome on Saturday for a European Union summit.

"There can be no 2003 missiles since these missiles have not been made for 15 years," Chirac told reporters in Rome. "Polish soldiers confused things. I told ... Miller so frankly - friendly but firmly."

France used similar arguments to rebut allegations in April that recently made Roland missiles have been found in Iraq.

The report first came in a statement by a ministry spokesman to Polish state television that the troops uncovered French-made Roland missiles in the town of Hilla, in the zone of central Iraq where the Poles lead a peacekeeping force. A ministry statement said the missiles were destroyed on Wednesday.

Maj. Andrzej Wiatrowski, a spokesman in Iraq for the Polish-led force, said pictures of the missiles taken before they were destroyed might clear up when they were made.

"That's the job for our superiors. Our job is to recover and destroy dangerous material," Wiatrowski said by satellite phone.

Iwinski said the matter has been settled. "It was wrongly said that the rockets were produced in that year," Iwinski said by telephone from the summit. "President Chirac has accepted Prime Minister Leszek Miller's explanation."

The Polish defense minister, Jerzy Szmajdzinski, "expressed his regrets" for the mistake, a ministry statement said.

France long had close ties to Iraq that included lucrative weapons deals. Paris supplied arms, in exchange for oil, during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war.

In June, an Associated Press reporter traveling with the 3rd Infantry Division found two Roland 2 missile launchers in excellent condition on Habaniyah airfield, 45 miles west of Baghdad. Each launcher had four missiles mounted on it, but both launchers had been flipped onto their sides, apparently in an effort to unload the flatbed trucks on which they were mounted.

At the time, U.S. Army officers said dozens of such missiles had been found on military bases across Iraq and all were believed to have been delivered before July 1990.

The French Foreign Ministry emphasized on Saturday that France has not authorized the sale of weapons, or even spare parts, to Iraq since July 1990, when the United Nations imposed sanctions on weapons sales following Saddam's invasion of Kuwait.

The ministry statement said Roland 1 missiles and launchers were exported to Iraq in 1980-81, while Roland 2 missiles were exported from 1983 to 1986. France stopped making Roland 2s in 1988 and Roland 3s in 1993, it said.

France used similar arguments to rebut allegations in april that recently made Roland missiles have been found in iraq.

The Polish Defense Ministry said the Roland missiles were among about a dozen missiles uncovered near Hilla on Tuesday, including Soviet-made Malutka, French Hot and French-German Milan missiles. The Roland missiles are about 25 feet long, radar-guided and launched from the back of a truck.

The U.S. military found 35 Roland missiles when it captured Baghdad International Airport in April. Roland missiles also were found when Australian troops captured an airfield in western Iraq.

The Web site GlobalSecurity.org says the Roland weapon system is intended for anti-aircraft defense of armored and mechanized the units to counter aircraft flying to nearly at 1 1/2 times the speed of sound or hovering helicopters.

[ladyinred]

I am really getting suspicious of all of these so called mistaken reports!