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Iraqi Scientist Leaves With UN Inspectors
U.N. arms experts paid surprise visits to the homes of two Iraqi scientists in Baghdad on Thursday, and led one of them away after their first foray into private residential quarters in search of evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.On the eve of the 12th anniversary of the 1991 Gulf War, witnesses said an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team arrived unannounced in Baghdad's Ghazaliyeh neighborhood, blocked a street and headed to the houses of scientists Faleh Hassan and Shaker al-Jabouri. Hassan, a physicist, left with the U.N. personnel to an unknown destination after an animated and apparently heated discussion between Iraqi officials and U.N. weapons experts. Hassan had a box of documents with him as he got into a U.N. car with Dimitri Perricos, a team leader among the U.N. experts searching Baghdad for banned nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and programs to develop them. "I'm not happy about all of this," Perricos could be heard telling Iraqi officials assigned to accompany the inspectors before driving off with Hassan in a convoy of U.N., Iraqi and journalists' vehicles. "I'm not going to say anything! Please, don't kill my family!" Earlier, the inspectors were seen going through documents at a table set up near Hassan's front door. They had also been engaged in an animated discussion with the Iraqi liaison officers. I'll bet it was heated, they know this is what can burn them. Hassan heads al-Razzi State Company which was founded in 1997 by Iraq's Military Industrialisation Commission and employs several people who were involved in Iraq's past nuclear program. The company was officially involved in laser development and military projects, a U.N. spokesman said when IAEA inspectors visited its facilities in December. Jabouri is a nuclear scientist who is believed to have been involved in Iraq's past nuclear program. When the inspectors arrived at the houses, neither man was home, so, respecting Arab traditions, the inspectors waited outside until Iraqi officials brought them back. The names of the two scientists are believed to be on a list provided by Iraq of 500 scientists involved in past banned weapons programs. Iraqi officials blasted the inspectors' surprise visits, saying the visits encroached on the human rights of both men, but acknowledged that they did not breach the inspectors' mandate. The head of a U.N. arms inspection team said on Wednesday his experts would soon interview more Iraqi scientists believed to have been involved in developing nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.Dimitri Perricos told a news conference in Baghdad that he preferred the interviews to be conducted outside Iraq but the inspectors would not force people to leave Iraq for interviews. And they are too scared to ask to be taken. Posted by: Steve 2003-01-16 |
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