M A I N   N E W S

Kelly’s wrist was slashed
Let probe establish facts: Blair

Southmoor (England), July 19
Weapons expert David Kelly apparently killed himself by slashing his left wrist, the police confirmed today .

The police said they had found a knife and some pain-killers near Kelly’s body, which was found from near a rural wood a day earlier.

“The cause of the death was haemorrhaging from a wound in his left wrist. The injury is consistent with having been caused by a sharp object,’’ said Acting Superintendent David Purnell of Thames Valley police.

Kelly’s wife said he felt enormous pressure when he was called before a parliamentary committee, where he denied that he was not the source the government was vigorously trying to smoke out.

LONDON: The family of British weapons expert David Kelly on Saturday urged all those involved in events leading to his death to “reflect long and hard” on their role in making his life “intolerable”.

The comments, made in a statement issued through police, could be interpreted as a call for either Prime Minister Tony Blair or members of his staff to resign over Kelly’s apparent suicide.

TOKYO: British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Saturday said the death of a British Government expert on Iraqi biological weapons was a “terrible tragedy,” but added that an “independent inquiry should be allowed to establish the facts”.

“I am profoundly saddened for David Kelly and his family. He did immense amount of good for his country in the past. And I am sure he would have done so in the future,” Mr Blair told reporters in Tokyo, the first stop on his six-day Asian tour.

Mr Blair was flying over the Pacific, mid-way between Washington and Tokyo, when he learned by satellite telephone that Kelly had been found dead in woods.

In Britain, newspapers accused the Blair government of using Kelly as a scapegoat. — AFP, AP