Saddam defiant - Richard Butler

Richard Butler, the retiring head of UNSCOM, the organisation set up by the UN after the Gulf War to monitor, identify and isolate Saddam Hussein's military capacity, on how he tried to deal forcefully with Saddam and Iraq's military ambitions while never certain that he had a fully committed UN behind him.Butler, an Australian, took on the job in 1997, with a staff that grew to over one thousand people and an annual budget of $50million. But although Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 had been the only instance since the founding of the UN of a member state seeking to absorb another member state and although it was condemned by the Security Council, the UN was never united in how to deal with the aggressor.Butler says unequivocally that despite UNSCOM's efforts Iraq retains what he calls 'WPD capability'. He will tell how his staff's efforts to carry out inspections were met by force. He will tell of his meetings with Saddam's leading lieutenant, Tariq Aziz, who despite outward charm lied even in the face of incontrovertible evidence over biological testing and other weaponry.Butler will also give his views of the UN, in particular the activities of Secretary-General Annan, with whom Butler was increasingly at odds.