UN inspectors found in a UN building in New York vials that may
contain a potentially deadly chemical original removed from an
Iraqi facility by UN a decade ago, an official announced
Thursday.
Aerial view of the
United Nations in midtown Manhattan, in New York
City.?
UN spokesperson Marie Okabe told reporters that UNMOVIC (the UN
Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission for Iraq) staff
discovered "two small plastic packages with metal and glass
containers with unknown liquid substance."
The find was made during the process of archiving UNMOVIC's
offices in New York, near the UN Headquarters building, as the
commission winds down after the Security Council terminated its
mandate in June.
She said an initial probe revealed that the packages were
recovered in 1996 from Al Muthanna, a former Iraqi chemical weapons
facility, by inspectors with the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM),
the predecessor of UNMOVIC.
UNMOVIC said the relevant packages were being handed over to US
authorities for removal and destruction. Normally, such items would
have been transported directly to appropriately equipped
laboratories for analysis.
It is said that an investigation would soon begin into how the
hazardous materials came to be in the commission's
headquarters.
According to the inspection report containing an inventory of
the items, one of the items may contain phosgene (COCL2) suspended
in oil -- an old generation chemical warfare agent.
"The inventory also indicated that the other package contains
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) reference standards in sealed
glass tubes," Marie said.
UNMOVIC chemical weapons experts sealed the packages and placed
them in a safe that was then isolated in a secured room at the
headquarters. They also tested the environment surrounding the
packages and found no concentration of toxic vapors in the air.
The spokesperson also said that UNMOVIC experts believe the
package are properly secured and pose no immediate risk or danger
to the immediate public.
Phosgene is a chemical weapon that was used widely in World War
I, and in both its gaseous and liquid forms can be potentially
life-threatening, causing the lungs to collapse and damaging the
eyes, nose, throat and skin. It is also an industrial chemical that
can be used in the production of plastics.
UNMOVIC was established by the Security Council in December 1999
to replace UNSCOM and continue the work, which begun in 1991 in the
aftermath of the war that followed the invasion of Kuwait, of
verifying Iraq's compliance with its obligations to be rid of
weapons of mass destruction, whether chemical, biological or
long-range missiles. It was also tasked with ensuring that Iraq did
not reacquire these weapons.
(Xinhua News Agency August 31, 2007)
