At least seven groups of UN weapons inspectors were out on Tuesday searching for suspected weapons of mass destruction, focusing on Iraq’s germ warfare capabilities.
A large team of biological experts from the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) returned to the University of Baghdad, where a biomedical institute was investigated on Monday, an AFP correspondent reported.
The target of the new probe was the Plasma research institute. The team drove up to the institute in a convoy of nine four-wheel drive vehicles and spent around one hour and a half there.
According to a 1999 report made by the previous UN body tasked with Iraqi disarmament, the Special Commission (UNSCOM), the University of Baghdad was used to procure biological weapons equipment and agents.
UNSCOM had asked Iraq to account for 30 tons of biowarfare agents, including botulinum toxin, the poisonous bacteria that causes botulism, anthrax, and aflatoxin, a carcinogenic substance.
Iraq admitted in 1995, after four years of denials, that it had run a germ warfare programme. But Baghdad insists it was terminated in 1991 after the Gulf war and the start of UNSCOM’s operations, and that all stocks of agents were destroyed.
There were also two biological teams, one chemical team and one team specialised in ballistics from UNMOVIC at work Tuesday, as well as two teams from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said an Iraqi official.
The ballistics team returned to the Zat al-Sawary plant, owned by Iraq’s Military Industrialisation Corporation (MIC), in the vast Taji industrial complex 18 kilometers north of Baghdad, which produces fibreglass.
The chemical team went to a Tigris river tributary to sample water, said the Iraqi official. A 16-member team of the IAEA and one biological team hit the road to the northern city of Mosul, but their exact destination was not known, he added.
The six-vehicle convoy of the IAEA heading north included an ambulance, taken usually by the inspectors for long journeys, an AFP correspondent said.
The inspectors plan to use helicopters to speed their searches, and their spokesman here Hiro Ueki told AFP a Bell 212 is ”almost ready” for operations.
He added that, under the initial plan, the inspectors should be equipped with eight helicopters, including five Bell 212s.
Disarmament inspections resumed on November 27 to test Iraq’s rejection of allegations that it still possesses and is developing weapons of mass destruction.
Inspector numbers hit three figures on Sunday with the arrival of 15 more arms experts from the mission’s rear base in Cyprus.
The 105 now operating in Iraq include 19 from the IAEA and 86 from UNMOVIC.
In addition to inspections, Iraq announced Sunday the UN experts had begun taking the names of its weapons scientists.
The United Nations announced last week that it had given Iraq until the end of the month to provide a complete list of scientists involved in its banned weapons programmes.
Iraq’s top liaison with the UN inspectors, General Hossam Mohammed Amin, had previously said Baghdad was drawing up the list and waiting for a formal request from the United Nations.
Under Resolution 1441 adopted by the UN Security Council last month, the inspectors have new powers to whisk scientists and their families abroad so that they can be interviewed without any risk of Iraqi intimidation.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Monday that resolution 1441 ”provides for those who need to be interviewed to be made available.
”If Iraq does not comply with that requirement of the resolution, I’m sure the international community will take note and decide what action is appropriate.”
White House representative Ari Fleischer added: ”There are people inside Iraq who are dedicated to peace, who would like to talk, have knowledge that they would like to share, and it is in the interest of the world to hear their facts.” – Sapa-AFP