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Knife incident at U.N. Iraq base
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Two men -- one carrying three knives, the other a notebook and shouting "Save me!" -- tried to enter the U.N. inspectors' Baghdad compound in separate incidents. Both men were apprehended and turned over to Iraqi authorities, U.N. officials reported. It was unclear whether the two unexplained incidents on Saturday were related. U.N. weapons inspectors met with Iraqi scientists Saturday at a Baghdad hotel, according to Iraq's Ministry of Information. Later, a senior Iraqi official told The Associated Press that three Iraqi scientists had refused to submit to requested private interviews with U.N. inspectors. CNN's Nic Robertson had reported a lot of activity at the Burj Al-Hayat hotel, where the Iraqi scientists were expected to be interviewed. On the two incidents, U.N. officials said that one man approached the hotel's security gate with a metal instrument, before Iraqi guards wrestled him to the ground. He was later found to have three knives, the U.N. said. About 40 minutes later, another Iraqi man stopped a U.N. vehicle outside the headquarters pleading "Save me! Save me!" in Arabic, according to the U.N. The man, apparently unarmed, forced his way into the driver's seat of the stopped vehicle, as an Iraqi guard struggled to pull him out, while an unfazed U.N. inspector watched from the passenger seat. Appearing agitated and frightened, the young man, with a closely trimmed beard and mustache, sat inside the white U.N.-marked utility vehicle for 10 minutes, AP reported. At first, an inspection team leader sought help from nearby Iraqi soldiers, but the man refused to leave the vehicle as the uniformed men pulled on his sleeve and collar. "I am unjustly treated!" he shouted. Then U.N. security men arrived, and they and Iraqi police carried the man by his feet and arms into the fenced compound, journalists said. The man was turned over to Iraqi authorities at a government office adjacent to the compound, U.N. officials said. Iraqi officials said they had no information on the incidents.
More than 100 inspectors and staff of other U.N. agencies have their offices at the site, the three-story former Canal Hotel, about six kilometers (four miles) from the city center. Such U.N. compounds traditionally provide diplomatic protection to persons seeking asylum. The latest developments came two days before chief inspectors are to submit reports to the U.N. Security Council on whether Iraq is cooperating with their work, begun in late November. On the scientists interviews, an Iraqi appeared Saturday morning for an apparent interview with U.N. arms inspectors after Iraqi officials urged the three scientists to submit to private interviews. It could not immediately be determined whether any questioning was conducted with or without an Iraqi government official present. The U.N. has interviewed other Iraqi scientists over the past few months with Iraqi officials present, in an attempt to get information on Iraq's chemical, biological, and nuclear activities. Last weekend, the inspectors interviewed an Iraqi scientist at his home, where they found thousands of pages of documents that could apply to enriching uranium. Physicist Faleh Hassan Al Basri complained the inspectors mistreated his wife and resorted to "mafia-like" tactics. The inspectors are under U.S. pressure to take scientists and their families out of Iraq for interviews. U.S. officials have said they believe the scientists would speak more freely if they were assured that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein could not retaliate. -- CNN Correspondent Nic Robertson and Producer Ingrid Formanek contributed to this report.
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