Nermin El-Mufti, in Baghdad, interviews Ewen Buchanan, the spokesman of The United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and Mark Gwozdecky, spokesman of The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Iraq said that resolution 1441 had overlooked all previous Iraqi cooperation with United Nations Special Committee (UNSCOM). What do you say to this? Buchanan: I think rather than looking back we should look forward. We have a new resolution which gives us a strong mandate adopted by the Security Council. This gives a new push to the inspectors, so we should look forward to it. We have a serious job to do. Are you going to start from the beginning, as if there had been no inspections? Gwozdecky: We have a picture of the state of Iraq's weapons programmes till December 1998. But four years have gone by, so we need to find out what happened in these four years. We cannot say that we will start from the beginning because we have seven years' inspection experience in Iraq. Do you think Iraq is going to cooperate? Buchanan: We hope so, and the Security Council, through this strong resolution, says that it is the final opportunity. The Security Council hopes that Iraq will cooperate; we hope so. Do you think that UNMOVIC inspectors will carry out their jobs professionally and refrain from spying on Iraq? Buchanan: Well, we have some 170 people who are well trained. And the big difference between UNMOVIC and UNSCOM is that the people who are working for UNMOVIC will be on the UN payroll and not the payroll of their governments. This is a big difference from the UNSCOM system. And Dr [Hans] Blix has been quite clear, publicly saying if any of the workers become engaged in anything outside of the mandate, they will certainly be fired from UNMOVIC. Are you going to interview Iraqi scientists outside of Iraq? Buchanan: Interviews are an important part of the investigations of the past, and clearly this is some thing we want to do. It is an authority we have, but not a mandate. Gwozdecky: We will use whatever authority we need to maintain effective inspections. Primarily, we will interview Iraqis in private and not in the presence of Iraqi minders, and the resolution gives us more authority to exercise that if we need to. What type of authority? Gwozdecky: The possibility of interviewing people outside of Iraq. Related stories: Inspections begin UNSC Resolution 1441 Related links: United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) UN Security Council (UNSC) United Nations (UN) The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
