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...arrival of demonstrators holding banners and shouting slogans usually marks the start of the working day for UN arms inspectors in Iraq. Then come the journalists, grabbing pictures of the UN team's white Toyota Land Cruisers leaving their compound, before hopping into their own cars to give chase. The convoy quickly grows as Iraqi intelligence officials, also driving white Land Cruisers, join the procession. When the team reaches its destination, it is usually greeted with suspicion and anger. And they usually return to base empty-handed...
...Despised as spies by the locals and derided as inept by some factions in Washington, the 230 members of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) have some of the toughest jobs in the world. And their report-back to the UN Security Council on Jan. 27 may determine the fate of Saddam Hussein's regime. Washington is impatient to go ahead and get rid of Saddam Hussein, but a number of other Council members insist that no aggression can be justified unless the inspectors find evidence of Baghdad defaulting on its promised disarmament. Until now, however...
...week denounced the inspections, claiming that their civil and religious rights had been violated. Anwar Mohammad, 59, said that the inspectors looking for biological weapons insisted on breaking open a sealed warehouse containing obsolete equipment. They found nothing, and now Mohammad is demanding "material and moral compensation from the UN," and an apology to him and his country. One scientist has already gone public with accusations of bribery and rudeness. When the inspectors visited 55-year-old Faleh Hassan's home in a posh Baghdad suburb, he says they were intrusive, even examining the personal belongings of his wife...
...Iraqis says that UNMOVIC is exceeding its brief, especially because they have been entering the hallowed presidential palaces - and now mosques. Presidential adviser Gen. Amer al-Saadi said that the UN was trying to make a statement. "It is an attempt to explore the mandate all the way. They were given a pretty powerful mandate and they are exercising it, regardless of whether it is necessary or warranted, " he said. Iraq, he added, was going to cooperate...
...officials in Baghdad, Blix extracted a promise that scientists would be 'encouraged' to participate in interviews - but most are still resisting because they fear being executed in the future, when the world is no longer watching. UNMOVIC has to cope with diplomacy issues as well: Baghdad refused to allow UN surveillance planes in its airspace demanding first that America halt its "illegal" intrusions (the "no-fly" zone patrols) during the UN missions. The UN could not make that promise and therefore, said Saadi, "we could not guarantee the safety of the UN crew," from Iraqi air defenses targeting...