UN arms monitors in more Iraq inspections
Date: 02-Dec-02
Country: IRAQ
Author: Haitham Haddadin
The inspections appeared to proceed smoothly, just as they did on Wednesday when the weapons inspectors resumed work in Iraq after a four-year gap.
Russia expressed satisfaction at the "successful start" of the inspections and hailed the "mood of constructive cooperation" between Iraq and the United Nations experts.
The United States has threatened a military assault on Iraq if President Saddam Hussein obstructed the inspections. Iraq has denied possessing chemical, biological and nuclear weapons of mass destruction, a stance Washington has questioned.
Two teams of inspectors accompanied by Iraqi officials spent several hours in both facilities, talking to employees, checking equipment and taking samples.
There was no comment from the inspectors last week's mission. Witnesses and Iraqi officials said it went smoothly.
A group of inspectors spent four hours at a foot and mouth vaccination laboratory in the Dora area south of Baghdad. The once government-run facility has been defunct since weapons inspectors dismantled its equipment in 1996.
Another team spent little over three hours at Nasr (Victory) complex in the Taji area, some 25 km (16 miles) north of the capital, where there are factories producing light conventional ammunition and heavy civilian machinery.
The two facilities had been mentioned by the United States in recent months as sites suspected of producing banned weapons.
Journalists in dozens of cars were involved in hot pursuit of the inspection teams. They followed the teams to the sites in high-speed car chases, but Iraqi guards again stopped them from entering the facilities.
The inspectors visited three sites outside Baghdad on Wednesday - a military-run heavy machinery workshop, a graphite factory and a missile site. They said Baghdad authorities had cooperated fully on the first day of inspections since 1998.
INSPECTORS RELAXED, PRESS UNIMPRESSED
The inspectors at the laboratory in Dora appeared well versed on the facility, situated in an agricultural area surrounded by palm trees.
Looking relaxed, they first walked in the field around the main building, checking huge water tanks. Then they spent 20 minutes inside a storage warehouse before going into the main building.
The building, visited by reporters after the inspectors left, appeared to have been abandoned a long time ago. Desks were covered with dust and files and manuals littered the floor.
Witnesses said the inspectors took swab samples from the water tanks, the air ventilation system and equipment at the facility. They also checked on four cameras left by previous inspection teams.
Asked what the facility was being used for, Muntaser Omar, former head of the lab, told reporters: "Nothing, nothing this is just now a store."
At Taji, Iraqi guards stood at the entrance of the large state-run complex where a large picture of President Saddam Hussein rose over the main gate. A U.N. helicopter hovered overhead as inspectors worked inside.
The director of the ammunition workshop told reporters the facility was legitimate and did not breach any U.N. resolutions.
The Iraqi state-run press was not impressed by the resumption of inspections.
Newspapers gave little coverage to the inspectors work, while blaming the United States for the failure of the previous inspection regime.
MORE INSPECTORS
At the U.N. headquarters in New York, Chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix said on Wednesday an additional training course in January would give him 300 experts for the mission in Iraq to search the 700 potential sites on the inspection commission's list.
There are currently 17 inspectors in Baghdad. Their number is expected to reach 100 around Christmas time.
U.N. inspectors pulled out of Iraq in 1998 after seven years checking that Baghdad had disarmed after the 1991 Gulf War.
At that time, arms monitors complained of a lack of access and suggested that evidence of nuclear, chemical or biologic
