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UN inspectors will determine future of Iraq: Paper
Baghdad, Nov 17: UN arms inspectors on their way back to Iraq bear a `huge responsibility`, and `the future of the Iraqi people` depends on them, an influential Baghdad newspaper said today.
Baghdad, Nov 17: UN arms inspectors on their way
back to Iraq bear a "huge responsibility", and "the future of
the Iraqi people" depends on them, an influential Baghdad
newspaper said today.
"We hope and pray that the teams of inspectors and their chiefs will act objectively as UN officials, since they bear a huge responsibility on which the fate and future of the Iraqi people, as well as the region's security and stability, depend," wrote Babel, which is run by president Saddam Hussein's elder son, Uday. Chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix and international Atomic energy agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamed El Baradei are due in Baghdad tomorrow to kick-start the process of resuming weapons inspections in Iraq after a four-year break.
Repeating that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction, Babel said the burden of proof to show the contrary was on the inspectors. "How can Iraq prove that it has no mass destruction weapons? How can it prove the non-existence of what it does not possess?" Babel asked.
UN Security Council Resolution 1441, which imposed harsh arms inspection terms on Iraq, put Baghdad in the dock, "like an accused who must prove his innocence in court." Resolution 1441 "charges that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, which means the onus is on the Security Council to prove this. Hence the sweeping and unfair powers given to the inspectors," the paper said.
Bureau Report
"We hope and pray that the teams of inspectors and their chiefs will act objectively as UN officials, since they bear a huge responsibility on which the fate and future of the Iraqi people, as well as the region's security and stability, depend," wrote Babel, which is run by president Saddam Hussein's elder son, Uday. Chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix and international Atomic energy agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamed El Baradei are due in Baghdad tomorrow to kick-start the process of resuming weapons inspections in Iraq after a four-year break.
Repeating that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction, Babel said the burden of proof to show the contrary was on the inspectors. "How can Iraq prove that it has no mass destruction weapons? How can it prove the non-existence of what it does not possess?" Babel asked.
UN Security Council Resolution 1441, which imposed harsh arms inspection terms on Iraq, put Baghdad in the dock, "like an accused who must prove his innocence in court." Resolution 1441 "charges that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, which means the onus is on the Security Council to prove this. Hence the sweeping and unfair powers given to the inspectors," the paper said.
Bureau Report