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Weapons inspections commence in Iraq

By Atul Aneja

MANAMA (BAHRAIN) Nov. 27. Backed by what appears to be a show of strength by the United States and Britain, the United Nations weapons inspectors after a gap of four years resumed their search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction today, setting in motion a possible chain of events that could determine war or peace in West Asia.

According to Iraqi civil defence officials, Western planes flew over Baghdad, nearly an hour after the inspectors set off on their maiden mission at 8.30 a.m. local time, triggering air raid sirens in the Iraqi capital. The planes did not drop any bombs and the all clear sign was given 10 minutes later.

In London, a Defence Ministry spokesman, however, denied there had been any Western air activity in the area. Resuming their inspections, the U.N. monitors drove from their headquarters, the old Canal Hotel, to a large guarded military compound, about 20 km away.

Officials from Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate, accompanied by an ambulance, escorted the convoy of white-painted U.N. vehicles separately.

The first group of 17 inspectors includes 11 officials from United Nations Monitoring Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), who will look for missiles, chemical and biological weapons while six from the IAEA would carry out a nuclear probe.

The team is carrying with it sophisticated equipment such as ground penetrating radars that will look for any buried banned weapons and advanced radiation detectors for sensing nuclear activity.

The present set of U.N. officials is expected to first concentrate on sites visited by earlier inspectors, to check if equipment left there was still working. Detailed inspections, however, are expected to begin only after secure communication and data transfer links between the inspection team in Baghdad and the United Nations headquarters were established.

Around a 100 inspectors are expected to assemble in the Iraqi capital by December end and were likely to submit their first report on their findings by January 27.

Aiming to disarm Iraq, the U.N. has authorised the inspectors to visit any part of Iraqi territory in order to find weapons of mass destruction and the means to produce them.

With inspections expected to gather momentum in the coming days, there are two sticking points, which could lead to friction between the U.N. inspectors and the Iraqi authorities. First, the two sides could clash over the inspectors searching the Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein's palaces for banned weapons.

The Iraqis have already expressed their unease over this subject while the Chief U.N. weapons inspector, Hans Blix, has emphasised that the presidential sites are not out of bounds for his team.

Second, differences with inspectors could arise over the list of non-conventional weapons and related infrastructure that Iraq is expected to present to the U.N. by a December 8 deadline. The British Prime Minster, Tony Blair, has already said that false declarations by Iraq would constitute a ``material breach'' of the November 8 resolution 1441 though it was up to the weapons inspectors to pass judgment.

Iraq has so far denied possession of banned weapons. According to the Baath party organ Al-Thawra, "The truth is that the weapons of mass destruction have been destroyed.''

The paper added, ``all the means to produce them were destroyed, confiscated or made redundant."

Aware that a "material breach" of the U.N. resolution could lead to a war, the Iraqis were thoroughly debating the possible contents of the list. According to Mr. Blix, the Iraqis were expected to "put up a very substantial report,'' but they were not sure if they had to include every detail of their chemical industry down to "the production of plastic slippers.'' In tandem with the inspections, efforts to weaken Iraq militarily, before a possible war are continuing unabated.

The U.N. Security Council, reportedly under U.S. pressure, is debating denying Iraq civilian items, which can have military applications. Iraq currently acquires these "dual use" goods under the U.N. monitored oil-for-food programme that allows it to sell limited quantities of its oil for the purchase of a list of essential items.

According to reports, the U.S. is particularly keen that Iraq is denied global positioning scanning devices, equipment to jam radio intercepts, atropine injectors and the large quantities of the drug atropine, which can be used for countering the effect of nerve gases.

The U.S. and British warplanes are also targeting Iraq's integrated air defence system in the "no-fly zones" of northern and southern Iraq.

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