NZDF personnel depart for Iraq

NZDF personnel who will be part of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) will depart for Iraq this weekend.

The team of medical and communications personnel, who will be providing technical support, is scheduled to leave from Wellington. They will travel by civilian aircraft to Cyprus where they will transfer to a United Nations chartered aircraft and continue on to Iraq.

UNMOVIC was established by the United Nations to replace the former UN Special Commission (UNSCOM). The UNMOVIC mandate is to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction and to operate a system of ongoing monitoring and verification to check Iraq’s compliance with its obligations not to reacquire weapons prohibited to it by the UN Security Council. The NZ Government has approved, in principle, a NZDF commitment of up to ten personnel for the next two years.

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