Top UN inspectors to get tough on Iraq

Chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix flew to Baghdad yesterday to demand that Iraq finally begin actively volunteering evidence on its weapons programmes to avert the threat of war.

Blix flew in from Cyprus with Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the United Nations nuclear agency, on what Blix said was a last-ditch bid to get Iraq's full cooperation before they report back to the UN Security Council on January 27.

The ensuing debate may be crucial to deciding whether the United States begins the war on Iraq that it has threatened, to force it to come clean on its alleged nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programmes.

The two inspectors were received at Saddam International Airport by President Saddam Hussein's senior adviser, Amir al-Saadi, and then driven to the al-Rashid Hotel in central Baghdad.

While anti-war protests gathered pace around the world, UN inspection teams, who returned to Iraq in November after a four-year break, headed for at least seven sites in search of weapons of mass destruction.

Blix said before leaving Cyprus that Iraq must understand it could avoid a war by full cooperation. "Inspections are not a prelude to war. They are an alternative to war," he said.

But he also said the discovery of documents at the home of an Iraqi scientist was a worrying indication that Iraq was choosing to hide relevant papers that it should be actively delivering to the inspectors.

Blix told reporters in Cyprus that Iraq had to declare - and give access to - all its documents. "Iraq has an obligation to give a full declaration so the documents should have been given. Why are they still there? Are there more?" he said.

"These are not weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Documents are not WMD. Shells are not. But they are a sign that not everything has been declared and that is worrying."

"The things that have happened in the last few days are a bit troubling."

UN inspectors raided the scientist's house on Thursday and found 3000 pages of material apparently related to enrichment of uranium that could be used for nuclear weapons.

The scientist, Faleh Hassan, accused the inspectors of "Mafia-like" behaviour and said they had tried to use his wife's illness to persuade him to leave Iraq to be questioned.

ElBaradei said the discovery of the documents underlined the need for Iraq to give clear evidence to back its insistence that it has no chemical, biological or nuclear weapons or long-range missiles.

"I don't want to jump to conclusions but I understand some of them are classified documents. Why are official documents kept in a private home?"

Both inspectors had said on Saturday they would get tough with Iraq to come clean over any weapons of mass destruction, as global protests underlined growing anxiety at the prospect of war in the oil-rich Gulf region.

From Tokyo to Cairo, Paris to Washington, demonstrators staged one of the biggest waves of anti-war protests since the United States and close ally Britain began pouring warplanes, ships and tens of thousands of troops into the Gulf region.

The largest protests took place in the United States, but US President George W Bush showed no sign of budging from his tough stance that Iraq must surrender any weapons of mass destruction or face war. US opinion polls show broad support for ousting Saddam.

Anti-war protesters in Washington brandished placards declaring "Regime Change Starts at Home" and "Would Jesus Bomb Them?" and tens of thousands demonstrated in other American cities to demand Bush give the UN inspectors a chance.

In Beirut, demonstrators shouted: "Sign your name on a suicide attack on US interests". Thousands of peace activists in Tokyo carried plastic guns stuffed with flowers.

Saddam hailed the demonstrations.

"They are supporting you because they know that evil-doers target Iraq to silence any dissenting voice to their evil and destructive policies," Saddam told senior military officers and his son Qusay, commander of Iraq's elite Republican Guards.

Iraq says it destroyed anything that would have breached UN resolutions on banned weapons before inspectors returned.

- REUTERS

Herald feature: Iraq