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Iraq Slams UN Mission for Silence Over US Aggression
Iraq on Monday slammed the United Nations Iraqi-Kuwaiti Observation Mission (UNIKOM) for keeping silence over the almost daily armed sorties against Iraq by US and British warplanes.
In an editorial, Al-Thawra, mouthpiece of Iraq's ruling Arab Baath Socialist Party, criticized the UNIKOM for failing to identify US and British warplanes overflying a no-fly zone in southern Iraq.
The editorial said the UNIKOM referred to the warplanes in its report as "unidentified planes" flying over the demilitarized zone between the Iraqi and Kuwaiti border.
"The UN and its mission must fulfil their duties," the editorial said, adding that Iraq has the right to demand the dismissal of the UNIKOM "as it is not impartial."
The editorial followed a report by the official Iraqi News Agency on Sunday that Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammad Said Al-Sahaf has demanded the UN to expel a UNIKOM officer out of Iraq.
The Iraqi foreign minister, in a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, accused Joseph Jaloda, a major from Kenya, of violating Iraq's law and trying to smuggle "illegal materials" into Iraq on December 10.
The officer has confessed to attempting to smuggle materials into Iraq, Sahaf said in the letter.
UNIKOM military observers, deployed in the demilitarized zone after the 1991 Gulf War, are in charge of reporting to the UN Security Council territorial violations from either country.
US and British warplanes have been flying over the no-fly zone since the end of the Gulf War, with the claimed aim of protecting the Shiite Muslims in the south from Iraqi troops.
Iraq has never recognized the zone for lack of clear UN authorization.
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