NZ plays key role in Iraq mission

By AINSLEY THOMSON and AGENCIES

New Zealand has been singled out as playing a pivotal role in allowing the resumption today of United Nations weapons inspections in Iraq.

Eight New Zealand servicemen are in Baghdad to help organise the first inspections in Iraq in four years.

The country is facing threats of war from American President George W. Bush if it does not disarm.

Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix said yesterday that the inspections could now begin, thanks to outside help. He singled out New Zealand for special mention.

"Thanks to assistance from the Government of New Zealand, we already have communication people and medics in place, and before the end of the week, we may have the first eight helicopters in Baghdad."

Mr Blix said he would have 100 inspectors drawn from a number of countries by Christmas.

The inspectors have returned armed with a sweeping mandate to search areas of Iraq previously considered off limits.

Iraq, which must make a formal declaration by December 8, denies having weapons of mass destruction.

But Mr Blix said Baghdad had to come clean about its arms programmes.

He told the UN Security Council in New York that earlier Iraqi declarations "in many cases left an open question whether some weapons remained".

Senior US officials believe Iraq is concealing nuclear, biological or chemical weapons programmes.

For Mr Blix, fresh from meetings in Baghdad, the onus is on Iraq to prove the contrary.

"If the Iraqi side were to state - as it still did at our meeting - that there were no such programmes, it would need to provide convincing documentary or other evidence," he said.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan reinforced the warning, saying the only way Iraq could avoid war was to co-operate with the inspection team.

The team of 17 inspectors is expected today to meet Hussam Mohammed Amin, head of the Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate, the office liaising with the inspections teams.

The initial work is expected to focus on sites visited previously by former arms teams, to check if equipment left there is still working.

Twenty tonnes of equipment have been flown to Baghdad from Larnaca, Cyprus. It includes communications gear, computers, furniture and medicines.

A Joint Forces spokeswoman, Flying Officer Karen Hill, said New Zealand's eight servicemen arrived in Baghdad on Friday, and were staying in UN accommodation.

The New Zealand team is four communication staff and four medics, on a six-month tour of duty.

The communication staff will provide links between nuclear and biological weapons inspectors in the field and the rest of the UN team in Iraq, as well as with UN headquarters in New York.

Ms Hill said the servicemen were equipped with gas-masks and other protective clothing.



British Prime Minister Tony Blair has also warned Iraqi President Saddam Hussein not to play a game of "hide and seek" in the hunt for weapons of mass destruction.

"We have no doubt that he does have weapons of mass destruction," Mr Blair said yesterday.

Mr Blair said a false declaration would constitute a "material breach" of Resolution 1441 - widely understood to be a trigger for any US-led military action - but that it would be up to the weapons inspectors to pass judgment.

The Navy frigate Te Kaha left Western Australia yesterday to patrol in the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.

Its job is to look for terrorists or anyone supporting the al Qaeda movement - the group held responsible for the September 11 terror attacks in New York last year.

Herald feature: Iraq