By Norm Dixon
The Iraqi government on July 31 lodged a protest with the United Nations against the destruction of seven samples of VX nerve gas found at the UN Special Commission on Iraq's (UNSCOM) Baghdad headquarters. UNSCOM ignored an Iraqi request not to destroy the samples pending further investigation into UNSCOM involvement in contaminating Iraqi missile warhead fragments in 1998.
In a letter to UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, Iraq's deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz described the destruction as a cover-up of the conspiracy orchestrated by UNSCOM in 1998 when it claimed to have found traces of VX gas on Iraqi missile warhead parts following a dubious test conducted at a United States laboratory.
Aziz suggested that the samples found at UNSCOM's Baghdad headquarters were used by UNSCOM — which has since been found to have been riddled with US spies — to contaminate the missile parts.
No traces of VX were found on other samples taken from the same missile warheads tested in laboratories in France and Switzerland. Aziz said this was evidence that UNSCOM colluded with the US to fabricate "pretexts and lies" to maintain sanctions against Iraq.
Meanwhile, on July 27, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported that sanctions against Iraq are worsening the living conditions of the Iraqi people. "The civilian population of Iraq is continuing to suffer an alarming deterioration in living conditions as the country enters its 10th year under UN embargo", the ICRC said in a statement.
"I have seen surgical gloves being washed and dried for reuse and doctors' greens splattered with blood — direct consequences of the embargo", Michel Minnig, who led an ICRC delegation to Iraq, told reporters.
The Geneva-based organisation said that hospital buildings were not maintained and expensive imported equipment, such as X-ray machines, was not being replaced. In addition, Iraq is suffering its worst drought since 1932.