- THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The
head of a global body policing a chemical weapons ban defiantly refused
yesterday to give in to a US campaign to oust him over his attempts to
woo Iraq into joining the organization and accept inspections.
-
- The US bid to oust the director of the Organization for
the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, or OPCW, is the second such campaign
since it succeeded last week in bringing about the replacement of the head
of the UN's climate advisory body.
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- The OPCW's director, Brazilian Jose Bustani, said he
would not bow to US pressure to resign during a three-day special session
of the organization in the Hague, which began yesterday.
-
- Bustani, who was unanimously reelected for a second
four-year
term in May, survived a no-confidence vote last month after Washington
accused him of mismanagement because of his overtures to Iraq - branded
by President Bush as part of an ''axis of evil'' with Iran and North
Korea.
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- A second vote is due to take place privately tomorrow
at the OPCW's headquarters. Delegates from the 145 OPCW member states have
said little about how they will vote.
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- ''The choices that you make during this session ... will
determine whether genuine multilateralism will survive or whether it will
be replaced by unilateralism in a multilateral disguise,'' Bustani told
delegates in a speech.
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- The United States said Bustani's efforts on Iraq were
no substitute for UN Security Council resolutions calling for Baghdad to
allow free access for UN weapons inspectors.
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