[A-List] Iraq: arms inspector's view

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Conflict 'illegitimate', says arms inspector
By Menelaos Hadjicostis and Haig Simonian
Financial Times; Apr 09, 2003

Although Douglas Fraser's mission with United Nations weapons inspectors to
disarm Iraq was interrupted by conflict, the retired colonel's carefully
chosen words would still rankle with hawkish war planners.

"If I was to make a choice, I would say the war in Iraq is illegitimate.
Self-defence is how the US rationalises the war on terror, but there is no
connection between that and the Iraq war," the 64-year-old Canadian said
after a long, contemplative pause.

Col Fraser, chief of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and
Inspection Commission's (Unmovic) regional office in Mosul, northern Iraq,
spoke out while on a brief stay in Cyprus after being evacuated from Baghdad
just 48 hours before war began.

Col Fraser said legitimacy for war could only be obtained through the UN
Security Council, drawing a parallel with the Nato bombing campaign to oust
Yugoslav troops from Kosovo four years ago.

"Kosovo was illegitimate as well," he said. "It was legitimised in arrears
with UN resolutions, but there was no UN authority to commence that
campaign," added Col Fraser, a career soldier with 40 years of service
including a six-month Cyprus peacekeeping stint in 1968 before retiring 25
years later. He poured cold water on US claims that Iraq possessed or had
the capacity to produce weapons of mass destruction.

Of Colin Powell's presentation to the UN Security Council he says: "Powell
didn't convince me."

Col Fraser is one of a few UN officials who have dared to speak out on their
mission. And it is a mission that he maintains could have produced results -
possibly even prevented bloodshed - had weapons inspectors been allowed to
finish their job.

"I think there was a job for Unmovic to do, otherwise I wouldn't be there.
It had a purpose and a good chance of success," he said, voicing a sense of
frustration and bitterness felt by inspectors after being airlifted out of
Iraq.

However, his views contrast with some members of the Unmovic team who spoke
anonymously to Die Zeit, the German weekly newspaper, recently.

They blamed the anti-war stance of France, Germany and Russia for making the
conflict in Iraq inevitable.

These members of the team said it was only the credible threat of force,
backed by a united UN Security Council, which had prompted the Iraqi
government into meaningful co-operation.

"Germany, France and Russia made the outbreak of war inevitable because of
their supposed peace policy," said unnamed members of the team in an
interview with Die Zeit.

The inspectors argued that prolonging the inspection period, as demanded by
France, Germany and Russia, would have been pointless in view of the
unwillingness of the Iraqi authorities to co-operate.

But Col Fraser praises the anti-war stance of his native Canada.

The most senior of three Canadians to have served with Unmovic, he was in
charge of the Mosul office for weapons inspection teams in Iraq, providing
security, interpreters, logistics, communications and medical services.

Although he would not be drawn on the operational aspects of the mission, he
explained the Mosul office was a precursor to a twin office that would have
been set up in Basra to cover southern Iraq had the mission not been cut
short.

Of his time in Mosul he said: "We had very good relations with the Iraqi
people; there was no animosity towards the UN."

The same applied to the Iraqi brigadier-general, his opposite number, as
well as the UN inspectors' "minders", Iraqi officials with the National
Monitoring Directorate.

Col Fraser said despite a few "incidents" in the early days of the
inspections where jittery minders would obstruct inspectors from going about
their business, it gradually became obvious that ordinary Iraqis believed
the inspection regime was positive.