UN Weapons Inspectors must be allowed to finish their job

11.00.31am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 23rd Apr 2003

Liz believes the United Nations inspectors still have an important role to play in Iraq.

West Midlands Liberal Democrat Euro MP Liz Lynne has called for coalition forces to allow the UN Weapons Inspectors, lead by Hans Blix, to be allowed back into Iraq to continue their job.

"It is vital that any attempt to uncover evidence of chemical, bacterial or nuclear weapons programmes in Saddam Hussain's Iraq must be carried out by a neutral authority. That authority was UNMOVIC before the war, and it must continue to be UNMOVIC now the conflict has passed," Liz said.

"The fact that no significant evidence of any such programmes has been found in the month since coalition forces entered Iraq is worrying. It is clearly in the coalition's interests to allow UN inspectors to carry out their job independent of the military so as to quash any suggestion that evidence has been tampered with or forged to justify the war retrospectively."

"I am particularly troubled by claims by Hans Blix in the media today that US and UK intelligence used to justify the war was somehow spurious and used to undermine the weapons inspections programme. This only reiterates the need for inspections now to be above board."

ENDS