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Dimitre Perricos, chief of the U.N. weapons inspection team in Iraq, shows off his group’s equipment
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BAGHDAD,
November 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – U.N. arms experts on
Wednesday, November 27, launched the first disarmament mission in Iraq
in nearly four years, inspecting a suspect site in the suburbs of
Baghdad.
A
team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) picked a site
northeast of the Iraqi capital that has previously been used as a
women’s prison.
A
non-identified plane flew over the site chosen by the IAEA team, led
by Jacques Baute, which houses facilities belonging to Iraq’s
organization for military industrialization, Agence France-Presse (AFP)
reported.
Air
raid sirens also sounded in the capital as a trace of white smoke
spread across the sky, apparently left behind by the plane.
A
portrait of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein overlooked the entrance of
the site, from which dozens of waiting journalists were barred entry.
IAEA
spokesperson Melissa Fleming told CNN television that the inspectors
faced a “daunting task”.
“We
operate like detectives and when we have clues, we have to be flexible
and change our plans,” said Fleming.
“One
of the most important points of our strategy is the ability to conduct
unannounced inspections; we will never reveal where we are going.”
The
inspectors, equipped with highly-sophisticated equipment, left the
Canal Hotel, a former hotel turned into the U.N. base in the Baghdad
suburbs, aboard white jeeps bearing the letters U.N. in black in two
convoys.
“The
inspectors are driving the U.N. cars themselves. They know where they
are going. They have maps and some of them are familiar with the roads
in Iraq,” U.N. inspectors. spokesman Hiro Ueki told AFP.
The
IAEA team and experts from the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and
Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) were followed by counterparts from
Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate, as well as dozens of
journalists and TV crews.
U.N.
inspectors said they would “freeze” sites they choose to inspect
in Iraq to prevent their disarmament missions being disturbed.
Under
U.N. Security Council resolution 1441 adopted November 8, the teams
have unprecedented powers to search Iraqi sites and question local
scientists about President Saddam Hussein’s arms programs.
Iraq
has strongly denied having any weapons of mass destruction and says
the inspectors will find nothing incriminating.
If
it does not cooperate with the inspections, it could face “severe
consequences,” including possible military strikes led by the United
States, which has pushed the U.N. Security Council to act against
Saddam Hussein.
Meanwhile,
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Tuesday that war with Iraq
can be avoided if Saddam Hussein cooperates with U.N. weapons
inspectors.
But
his experts on the ground warned that Baghdad would have to offer
strong proof to back its claim that it had no nuclear, biological or
chemical weapons.
“(War)
is avoidable if President Saddam Hussein honors his commitments made
at the United Nations and cooperates fully with the inspectors,”
Annan told the French newspaper Le Monde.
Kofi
Annan said in his interview: “If Iraq does what it has to, the
arguments in favor of war will be considerably weakened. But should
Saddam Hussein defy the inspectors and the U.N., then the (Security)
Council will assume its responsibilities.”
He
urged the United States not to be over-hasty in its determination to
go to war, warning this could split a now-united Security Council.
“I
note that there is a risk of using developments which other countries
might consider only slightly or not sufficiently important to declare
war. If the U.S. does that, it will divide the Security Council.
“On
the other hand, if we leave space and time for the inspectors to do
their job, the situation will be different. We need to take stock and
form a decision on the basis of something substantial,” Annan said.
“When
the U.N. decides to act, it should be on the basis of incontestable
arguments so that no support is lost,” he said.
In
New York, chief arms inspector Hans Blix told the Security Council
Iraq would have to give strong proof that it has no biological,
chemical or nuclear weapons.
