Butler should go: says Egypt

South News 21 December 1998

CAIRO, Dec 21 (South News) - Egypt's Foreign Minister Amr Mussa was quoted Monday as saying that the United Nations chief arms inspector in Iraq, Richard Butler, had lost his credibility and should be replaced.

It is in everybody's interest to end Butler's mission, Mussa said in remarks reported in the Egyptian media. A report by Butler accusing Baghdad of failing to provide full cooperation in disarmament led to last week's U.S.-British air strikes against Iraq.

We are not relieving the Iraqi government of part of the responsibility regarding compliance with Security Council resolutions, but it is not the only party to be blamed, Mussa said.

Egypt's chief diplomat said Butler's U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM), which was charged with eliminating Iraq's mass-destruction weapons after the 1991 Gulf war, did not perform its mission in the right way.

UNSCOM was not up to the responsibilities specified for it by the Security Council and the U.N. charter, Mussa said.

He called for a comprehensive review of the past seven years of inspections to determine what really happened.

Meanwhile UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday decided that the United Nations staff temporarily relocated from Iraq to Amman last Friday should return to Baghdad. A United Nations spokesman said that the staff would travel to Baghdad by road on Tuesday.

Authentication and certification of arrival of humanitarian supplies resumed at the port of Qasr on Monday and will resume at Al-Walid at the border with Syria and at Trebil at the border with Jordan on Tuesday.

Oil monitors remained on duty and reported that there had been no interruption to the exports of Iraqi oil through Ceyhan or from the loading platform at Mina-Al-Bakr.

In New York the head of UNESCO launched an appeal on Monday urging the international community and the United Nations system to take steps to alleviate the suffering of the people of Iraq, especially children, and to work for the transition from a culture of war to a culture of peace and dialogue in the region.

Now that the bombing is over, UNESCO Director-General said in his appeal, let us work together, unstintingly and effectively, to assist the people of Iraq, particularly their children.

Noting that children have no nationality, Mr. Mayor called for generosity in helping them and all the innocent people of Iraq who had suffered so much. Let us now help them with renewed impetus, let us replace war with education, weapons with schools, bombs with books, missiles with teachers, suffering with assistance, said Mr. Mayor.