Iraq to send Blix report on nerve gas disposal

IRAQ will send a report on its disposal of VX nerve agent to chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix today and another report on anthrax a few days later, a diplomatic source said.

“The Iraqis are sending the report on the VX to the United Nations chief weapons inspector,” the source told reporters in Baghdad yesterday. “The anthrax report will be submitted in a few days by the Iraqis.”

Blix had asked Iraq to submit full reports on VX and anthrax to back up its claims that it had destroyed them after the 1991 Gulf War.

The United States and Britain, which have threatened to invade Iraq unless it dismantles alleged weapons of mass destruction, say Baghdad has failed to account for all its VX and anthrax production. Baghdad denies possessing weapons of mass destruction, and says it is cooperating fully with the United Nations.

Hiro Ueki, spokesman for UN weapons inspectors in Baghdad, had no immediate information on the VX report. The United Nations says it has been unable to account for the quantities of VX and anthrax which Baghdad says it destroyed. The diplomatic source said that, in the past, the Iraqis claimed they had lost documentation on the destruction, and asked inspectors to estimate the amounts based on the size of the contaminated areas. The inspectors asked Iraq to provide documents to back up its claims, and for interviews with scientists and workers present at the destruction sites. The diplomatic source said one of those scientists was interviewed by the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) inspectors on Wednesday: “The inspectors want to interview all those present there.

“The interviews are very important. They have a technique to tell immediately if the person is telling the truth,” he said, adding the inspectors knew exactly how long it would take to destroy quantities of banned weapons.

Meanwhile, UN arms experts supervised the scrapping of three more banned al-Samoud missiles by Iraq yesterday in a programme Washington has denounced as a charade. Iraqi officials said UN inspectors travelled to eight suspect arms sites, including Taji military base, 40km north of Baghdad, where 61 al-Samoud missiles have been destroyed since March 1.

Ueki said Iraqi technicians destroyed three more missiles, seven warheads and 22 fin-shaped tails under the gaze of inspectors. More components were destroyed at the al-Aziziyeh site.