UN arms inspectors probe nuclear complex

United Nations weapons inspectors were today making their way through a sprawling complex where Iraqi scientists once worked on a nuclear bomb.

It was the third consecutive day the inspectors visited al-Qa’qaa, near the town of al-Tuwaitha, 15 miles southeast of Baghdad.

The site had been under UN scrutiny in the 1990s and was involved in the final design of a nuclear bomb before Iraq’s nuclear programme was destroyed by international teams after the 1991 Gulf War.

Also for the third day, inspectors visited Hatteen, a complex 40 miles south of the capital. Hatteen houses a number of government factories that make everything from cars to ammunition.

A day earlier, Hollywood star Sean Penn spoke out in Baghdad in support of the Iraqi people caught up in an international crisis.

“Simply put, if there is a war or continued sanctions against Iraq, the blood of Americans and Iraqis alike will be on our (American) hands,” Penn said at the end of a three-day visit set up by the Institute for Public Accuracy, a research organisation based in San Francisco.

“I did not come here to criticise any government or president,” the actor said, but called on Washington to make public the evidence it claims it has that Iraq is stockpiling banned weapons.

Penn is among scores of US celebrities who have spoken out, but the first to travel to Iraq to express his concerns.

Earlier this month, Martin Sheen and Kim Basinger were among more than 100 entertainers who signed a letter urging US President George Bush to avoid a war with Iraq.

Other Americans without celebrity status are in Iraq, some describing themselves as “human shields,” trying to stop a war. Earlier this month, the Chicago-based Iraq advocacy group Voices in the Wilderness, held a small peace demonstration in front of the UN offices in Baghdad.

The UN arms monitors are working in Iraq under a UN resolution passed last month that threatens serious consequences if Iraq fails to prove it has surrendered all its banned weapons.

The United States has threatened to attack Iraq – alone if necessary – and says it has proof Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is hiding weapons of mass destruction. Iraq says it has no such weapons.

:: In Berlin yesterday, the German defence ministry said the UN had asked it to supply the inspectors with unmanned spy aircraft.

A decision on whether to supply the drones and the technicians needed to maintain them will probably be made this week, said a ministry spokesman.