Wife of the Iraqi scientist speaks to journalists

BAGHDAD, January 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - UN disarmament inspectors are employing the methods of the mafia to try to tempt Iraqis to flee abroad, according to an Iraqi scientist Saturday, January 18, who said he turned them down.

Faleh Hassan Hamza, director of the Al-Razi factory which develops lasers and other projects for the military, told reporters that a female inspector from the United States proposed that he leave the country after searching his house, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

She took advantage of a moment of absence by an officer from Iraq's disarmament liaison body. "When the official from the National Monitoring Directorate left the room for three minutes, the inspector turned to me and asked 'Are you seeking an alternative?”

He said she suggested he could leave the country by pretending to take his wife abroad for medical treatment for her diabetes.

"She said they were ready to have my wife cared for outside Iraq and that I could accompany her. I said no thank you."

"These are the methods of the mafia. They want to create problems between a citizen and his government by claiming to offer an alternative," said Hamza. "It's not just intelligence activities, but mafia behavior."

The inspectors seized thousands of documents from his house after a stormy meeting and took photocopies before handing them back.

Under UN Resolution 1441, Iraqi scientists can be taken abroad with their families and interviewed free from any intimidation by the Baghdad regime, in case the scientists themselves wanted to. So far, the Iraqi scientists have refused to be interviewed abroad, arguing they have nothing to hide nor anything to fear.

The United States, threatening to disarm Iraq by force if it fails to cooperate totally with the inspectors, is pushing for such interviews, but none have so far taken place.

Hamza, who studied in Edinburgh, Scotland, and worked for Iraq's Atomic Energy agency until 1994, said he would never go along with the idea of exile.

"Even if I have instructions from my government, I will never leave my country. Never ever," he vowed.

"We prefer to be beggars in our own country than kings abroad."

The 55-year-old Iraqi said his wife, who also suffers from high blood pressure, panicked when the inspectors came calling, banging on the door with iron bell because the bell did not work.

He was not at home and had to be telephoned to come back, he said.

Hamza said most of the documents photocopied were mainly his published work or theses he had supervised. "I am ready to talk about the documents one by one," he said.

The photocopying of the papers almost turned into a crisis after Hamza refused to go to the inspectors headquarters at the former Canal Hotel and the inspectors refused to go to Iraq's monitoring directorate.

Finally the inspectors brought four photocopying machines to the Burj al-Hayat hotel, one of four hotels where inspectors are staying in Baghdad, to carry out the copying. Hamza returned home in the early hours of Friday.

New Protest Greets Arms Experts

UN inspectors meet growing hostile feelings both in Iraq and abroad

Meanwhile, a second day of protests by several hundred angry Iraqi journalists met UN disarmament experts Saturday as they set off for the 50th day of inspections.

The Iraqi journalists' union, headed by President Saddam Hussein's eldest son, Uday, staged a first demonstration Friday to commemorate the outbreak of the Gulf War on January 17, 1991.

They returned to the UN's Baghdad headquarters Saturday, blocking the exit gate and declaring their hostility to the United States and support for Saddam.

Iraqi security forces kept control of the crowd, but UN vehicles had to go out through an entry gate, edging their way through the journalists, fists raised, shouting "Down Down Bush".

"We will never abandon Iraq and Saddam Hussein," they chanted, brandishing pictures of the Iraqi leader, placards reading "No to war" and Iraqi and Palestinian flags.

The UN teams visited six sites, including a food laboratory affiliated to the trade ministry in the Al-Jamilah neighborhood to the north of the capital, according to the Information Ministry's press center.

Dimitri Perricos, planning and operational director for the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), led the inspectors to the laboratory, checking a room under construction and a refrigerated trailer, AFP said.

UN teams also visited Kufa University, south of Baghdad, and returned to Baghdad University.

Three inspectors, watched by journalists, walked into the office of the president of Baghdad University before meeting the dean of the faculty of sciences, Mona al-Zaburi, and visiting the physics laboratories.

Members of the science and genetics faculty have been interviewed previously, as has the university president.

Since the UN disarmament mission resumed on November 27 after a four-year break, experts have also visited science faculties at other universities in Baghdad and the main cities of Mosul and Basra.

UN teams also returned to visit the destroyed nuclear reactor of Al-Tuwaitha, south of Baghdad, which has been the target of allied air strikes since the 1991 Gulf War.

Other UN teams visited the Al-Naaman military installation, south of Baghdad, while a convoy of more than 20 UN and Iraqi vehicles drove into the Al-Qaaqaa military site, which specializes in building rockets.

On Sunday, chief UN disarmament inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei return on a 24-hour trip to Iraq ahead of their first in-depth status report to the UN Security Council on January 27.

There has been widespread speculation that the United States may use the January 27 report as the threshold for deciding military action against Iraq, with or without UN support.

However, massive popular anti-war marches around the globe may, according to observers, have an impact on the situation, pushing it towards a peaceful resolution.