IRAQ: UNITED NATIONS ARMS INSPECTORS HAVE COMPLETED THEIR FIRST FIELD MISSION IN IRAQ
Record ID:
338014
IRAQ: UNITED NATIONS ARMS INSPECTORS HAVE COMPLETED THEIR FIRST FIELD MISSION IN IRAQ
- Title: IRAQ: UNITED NATIONS ARMS INSPECTORS HAVE COMPLETED THEIR FIRST FIELD MISSION IN IRAQ
- Date: 27th November 2002
- Summary: (W2) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (NOVEMBER 27, 2002) (REUTERS ACCESS ALL) 1. SLV UNITED NATIONS COMPOUND 0.03 2. SLV U.N CARS 0.12 3. SLV MEDIA WAITING 0.14 4. MCU (English) MELISSA FLEMING SENIOR UN INFORMATION OFFICER SAYING: "Everybody feels anxious to get going and very determined to start this systematic inspections, we just hope that these
- Embargoed: 12th December 2002 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BAGHDAD AND AT-TAHADI, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVA7T8MSKKIZ39ZO99PIGTVV6IQ5
- Story Text: United Nations arms inspectors have completed their
first field mission in Iraq in four years at the start of a
hunt for banned Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
U.N. arms inspectors conducted their first field
mission in Iraq in four years on Wednesday (November 27) in a
process that could determine war or peace in the volatile
Middle East. They spent around three hours at a large military
compound east of Baghdad before heading back to their
headquarters in the capital.
There was no immediate word from the inspectors or the
Iraqi authorities on how the inspection went. But earlier in
the morning a U.N. senior information officer, Melissa
Fleming, said inspectors hoped for a good day of work.
"Everybody feels anxious to get going and very determined
to start this systematic inspections, we just hope that these
things will go well and good day of inspection," she told
reporters as the inspectors left the hotel where they are
staying to go to their headquarters before their day's work.
The inspectors left their Baghdad headquarters in the old
Canal Hotel on the southeastern outskirts of Baghdad at 8:30
a.m. (0530 GMT) and split into two groups, escorted by
officials from Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate.
The first convoy, carrying experts from UNMOVIC, the group
charged with searching for missiles, chemical and biological
weapons, drove to At Tahadi or "The Challenge" factory, a
large military compound guarded by troops about 20 km (12
miles) to the east.
The second convoy, carrying a team from the IAEA
(International Atomic Energy Agency) to investigate nuclear
facilities, was believed to have driven to a small industrial
complex northeast of Baghdad.
The inspections are in line with U.N. Security Council
Resolution 1441, which offers Iraq a last chance to give up
weapons of mass destruction which it denies possessing.
The United States has threatened a war on Iraq if it does
not disarm.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, asked by France's
Europe 1 radio about the start of the inspectors' mission,
replied "I think it got off to a rather good start."
If Iraq allowed the inspectors to work normally and they
found nothing illegal, economic sanctions on Iraq might be
lifted or at least suspended, the radio, monitored by the BBC
in London, quoted him as saying.
The military compound visited by UNMOVIC inspectors is run
by Iraq's Military Industrialisation Commission. It has
several buildings and security was tight.
Iraqi guards at the gate stopped journalists from
accompanying the experts.
Journalists in around 50 cars had raced behind the convoys
of white cars carrying the U.N. symbol across Baghdad, a city
of around five million people.
The start of inspections marks the countdown to a December
8 deadline for Baghdad to declare any nuclear, chemical or
biological weapons in an initial report to the United Nations
Security Council.
The inspectors gave up their post-Gulf War quest in 1998
in the face of Iraqi obstruction -- notably over access to
numerous "presidential sites".
The heads of the inspection teams said on Tuesday they
would leave no stone unturned on their missions and that,
unlike their predecessors, they had a strong mandate to look
inside Saddam's own, sprawling palace compounds at any time.
Under Resolution 1441, which was approved on November 8,
the inspectors must give their first report to the Security
Council by January 27.
"We hope that the inspection teams will accomplish their
job within the legal framework of their task and Mr. Blix
actually give a positive sign of that because he promised he
won't allow anybody to work with two hats," said Mohammed
Al-Adhami, an Iraqi MP on Wednesday, before the inspectors
left for their first mission.
The hunt by the weapons inspectors will take them to sites
declared by Iraq, previously visited sites, sites that have
been importing materials that need to be verified or new ones
gleaned from satellite photos.
Some 20 tonnes of equipment have already been flown in
from Cyprus, including communications gear, computers,
furniture and medicines. By mid-December, the team will have
helicopters to help monitor large sites while inspections are
taking place.
Some of the equipment to be used includes complex ground-
penetrating radars which can uncover underground facilities as
well as radioactive isotope detectors.
A spokesman for the team in Baghdad has said inspections
will probably focus first on sites visited by earlier
inspectors, to check if equipment left there was still
working.
The first group is made up of 11 officials from UNMOVIC
and six from the IAEA. A further 30 to 35 inspectors will fly
in on December 8 and by late December there should be between
80 and 100 in Iraq.
The sirens sounded at around 0630 GMT in Baghdad, about an
hour after U.N. weapons inspectors began their first field
mission in four years in search for banned weapons.
Residents saw a white vapour trail of the kind left by
high flying aircraft in the sky over Baghdad. The all clear
was given around 10 minutes later.
The Iraqi capital is just north of a southern "no-fly"
zone routinely patrolled by U.S. and British planes. In the
past, sirens have sounded in Baghdad when the planes attacked
on the edge of the zone.
Skirmishes in the northern and southern no-fly zones have
increased over the past few weeks, with U.S. and British
planes launching almost daily raids, attacking Iraqi positions
in response to what they say is Iraqi anti-aircraft fire.
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