War with Iraq ‘will be a human calamity’

WAR with Iraq, with biological or chemical agents possibly unleashed, will be a human calamity, the UN refugee chief has warned — exactly a month before a final arms inspectors’ report might trigger a conflict.

"Believe me, it will be a disaster from a humanitarian perspective," Ruud Lubbers, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said.

He raised the spectre that bacteriological or chemical weapons for evidence of which UN inspectors are currently scouring Iraq could be used in a conflict.