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Nations Back Chemicals Weapons Treaty

Posted on: Thursday, 10 May 2007, 00:00 CDT

By ARTHUR MAX

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Nations marked the 10th anniversary of the treaty banning chemical weapons Wednesday, pledging to step up efforts to bring on board the handful of hold-out countries, including some in the Mideast and North Korea.

The director of the chemical weapons watchdog agency charged that the few countries refusing to endorse the Chemical Weapons Convention were undermining a treaty that has proven to be the most effective disarmament accord ever negotiated.

Watched by diplomats from most of the treaty's 182 member states, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands inaugurated a memorial to victims of chemical warfare outside the headquarters of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, or OPCW, created to monitor and verify compliance with the convention.

The treaty, designed to eradicate a weapon in use since Stone Age man invented the poison arrow, came into force April 29, 1997. The ceremony was delayed at the queen's request to coincide with the anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.

Egypt, Syria and Lebanon have refused to sign the convention, arguing that the chemical weapons ban must be part of a larger agreement encompassing Israel's alleged possession of nuclear weapons, said OPCW director Rogelio Pfirter.

Israel has signed the accord but has refrained from ratifying it, citing "the situation in the region," he said.

Although Pfirter has held talks with leaders of the Mideast countries, he said North Korea had rebuffed all his overtures. "It is the only country which has not responded to any of our openings."

He urged that the chemical weapons ban be put on the agenda of the six-party talks seeking to dismantle North Korea's nuclear capability.

Among the other seven countries which have not signed the convention, the Iraqi government has agreed to accept it and has sent the instruments of accession to the Iraqi parliament.

"We want to bring them in," said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Paula DeSutter, whose office oversees the verification of international treaties.

Lebanon was expected to sign shortly, said OPCW officials. Somalia and Angola also have not signed.

The convention outlawed the production, acquisition, development or transfer of chemical munitions, and set up a tough verification system for dismantling stockpiles within a decade.

But the process of destroying the weapons proved complex and expensive. Russia and the United States, which own the bulk of the chemical arsenals, received five-year extensions and are now committed to disarm by 2012.

The OPCW says 30 percent of the 8.6 million chemical munitions or containers that existed in 1997 have been destroyed, along with a quarter of the 17,000 metric tons of chemical agents. It has conducted nearly 3,000 inspections of weapons storehouses and chemical industries in nearly 80 countries.

Its biggest success came in 2004 when Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi declared he had a stockpile of 20 tons of mustard gas and invited the OPCW to monitor its destruction.

DeSutter said the threat of chemical terrorism remains high, and little can be done to prevent the manufacture of bombs that use industrial or even household chemicals.

Earlier this year, Iraqi insurgents detonated bombs using chlorine gas that sickened hundreds of people in Iraq.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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