Text of report by Iraqi TV on 20th December

The inspection teams continued their activities for the 29th consecutive day following Iraq's decision to accept the activities of the [UN] Special Commission in Iraq with the cooperation and support of the Iraqi side.

Major General Engineer Husam Muhammad Amin, director-general of the National Monitoring Directorate, told the Iraqi News Agency that 11 teams paid surprise inspection visits to 15 sites spread over a large geographical area. The missile team verified the labels on some missiles included in the monitoring.

He added that the team led by American national Scott Ritter paid surprise inspection visits to three sensitive sites that had been previously visited. All visits took place in accordance with the formulas of searching the sensitive sites and fortifications recently agreed upon by the two sides without facing problems.

Amin said: However, the air reconnaissance team that accompanied the team did not fully abide by these formulas, despite the fact that the Iraqi pilot, who was also aboard the plane, cautioned the pilot several times to no avail.

This prompted the head of the Iraqi side accompanying the ground team to strongly object to this behaviour and to ask him to notify the pilot of the special commission to abide by the formulas. This was accomplished following an intervention by the head of the team.

Source: Iraqi TV, Baghdad, in Arabic 2000 gmt 20 Dec 97

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.
 

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