- NEW YORK -- Concern is growing
that a demand for scrap metal fromwar-damaged Iraq is emptying the country
of reusable goods and equipment such as water-plant components, sections
of buildings, and materials linked to former weapons programmes.
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- The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna
has warned that satellite surveillance has shown entire structures at hundreds
of military industrial sites being dismantled in recent months. "We
see sites that have totally been cleaned out," said Jacques Baute,
the director of the agency's Iraq nuclear verification department.
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- The IAEA first became concerned in December last year
when a steel vessel contaminated with uranium from Iraq arrived at a Rotterdam
scrap yard. It had allegedly been taken out of Iraq by a scrap merchant
based in Jordan.
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- The New York Times reported yesterday that about 100
lorries are crossing into Jordan from Iraq every day laden with materials
looted from the country.
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- John Hamre, the head of the Centre for Strategic and
International Studies, a think-tank based in Washington, said: "There
is a giant salvage operation, stripping anything of perceived value."
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- As Western countries, notably the United States, prepare
to rebuild the country, they will not welcome evidence that so much material
is being removed from Iraq by traders in neighbouring countries.
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- Mr Hamre said: "This is systematically plundering
the country. You're going to have to replace all this stuff."
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- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=526007
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