Albania Has Chemical Arms; CWC Review Conference Meets
Kerry Boyd
While the United States invaded Iraq and sent its troops around
that country on a so-far fruitless search for chemical and biological
weapons, a European state quietly announced that it has chemical
weapons. During a meeting of states belonging to the Chemical Weapons
Convention (CWC) in mid-March, Albania stated that it possesses
chemical weapons. A month later, 110 of the 151 CWC member states
gathered to review the treaty, which bans all chemical weapons and
requires their destruction, and agreed on several steps to enhance
the treatys implementation.
Albania will soon start destroying its stockpile, according to
Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Director-General
Rogelio Pfirter. Further information on the size and content of
the countrys chemical stockpile is not yet publicly available,
according to the OPCW.
A month after Albanias declaration, CWC member states met
in The Hague from April 28 to May 9 for the treatys first
review conference since the treaty entered into force in 1997. At
the end of the conference, states agreed both to a final declaration
and a political declaration; the ability of states to agree to such
declarations is often considered a sign of success for a conference.
The declarations released at the end of the conference reaffirm
the states commitment to the conventions goals and the
importance of expanding the treatys membership to include
countries that might have chemical weapons and are not party to
the CWC. Thus, the conference accomplished two of the main tasks
suggested in advance by Pfirter and several leading countries, such
as the United States.
The final documents also emphasize the importance of improving
the efficiency of the inspection regime mandated by the CWC. One
of the United States primary goals at the conference was making
inspections more cost effective. The OPCW expects the number of
sites used to destroy chemical weapons to increase dramatically
starting this year as the United States and Russia plan to open
more demilitarization sites, and the organization has decided it
must find ways to make inspections more efficient in order to fulfill
its inspection responsibilities.
Delegates also agreed that national implementation of the treatys
provisions is key to the conventions effectiveness. Each state-party
is required to adopt certain measures, such as enacting penal legislation,
to implement the treaty on its own territory. States are supposed
to inform the OPCW of such measures, but many have failed to do
so. According to British delegate Denis MacShane, only one-quarter
of member states have implemented the necessary legislation
covering all the key areas for enforcement of CWC provisions.
The U.S. and British delegates urged states to implement national
provisions required by the treaty, particularly penal legislation,
arguing that such legislation is key to preventing terrorism involving
chemical agents. MacShane spoke of suspected terrorist activity
in the United Kingdom last winter that involved the development
of the toxin ricin and the role British penal law played in helping
to apprehend and prosecute the alleged terrorists.
The final declaration calls on member states that are lagging behind
to submit information on national implementation measures by the
next regular session of the Conference of the States-Parties, a
decision-making body comprised of all CWC member states.
The states also agreed on the importance of assistance to help
states protect themselves from chemical attack and emphasized the
need for increased international cooperation in chemical science
and technologyissues of particular importance to non-Western
states.
Outstanding Issues
The final documents, however, do not address several concerns that
states and nongovernmental organizations had going into the conference.
At an open forum where nongovernmental experts spoke, concerns were
raised about the increasing interest of certain states in so-called
nonlethal chemical weapons, ranging from riot control agents to
chemical incapacitants designed to render targets unconscious. A
note from Pfirter to the review conference, released April 17, said
states might want to discuss concerns related to nonlethal weapons.
These issues need to be carefully analysed so as to prevent
any potential harm to the Convention, the note says. At least
two states-parties raised the issue of nonlethal weapons in their
speeches at the conference, but neither the final declaration nor
the political statement refers to the issue directly.
Another issue is Russias request for an extension on the
2007 deadline for destroying its entire chemical weapons stockpilethe
largest in the world. On April 26, Russia finished destroying 1
percent of its stockpile, after receiving an extension on the original
April 2000 deadline. (See
ACT, June 2003.) Russia has said it will miss the April
2007 deadline for total destruction of Category 1 stockpilesthe
most dangerous weapons. The treaty allows states to request an extension
until 2012. The final declaration did not directly address Russias
difficulty meeting deadlines, but it reaffirmed that possessor states
are responsible for destroying their chemical weapons. It also,
however, called on states with the ability to provide assistance
to do so.
The United States is also not expected to meet the 2007 deadline,
although, so far, it has met its interim deadlines and it has not
yet requested an extension. Since entry into force, we have
met every treaty milestone, and to date have destroyed over 22 percent
of our stockpile, said Stephen Rademaker, U.S. assistant secretary
of state for arms control. He also noted that destroying the entire
U.S. chemical weapons arsenal is expected to cost a total of $24
billion.
Confronting Problem States
Rademakers statement to the conference reflected the Bush
administrations approach to weapons of mass destruction: drawing
attention to a few problem states and showing little interest in
using inspection provisions. He listed Syria, Libya, and North Korea
as states outside the treaty that are developing chemical weapons.
One step we must collectively take is to provide powerful
incentivesboth positive and negativeto those states
remaining outside the Chemical Weapons Convention to join,
Rademaker said.
Continuing a Bush administration trend of breaking the diplomatic
taboo against naming names, Rademaker also accused Iran,
a CWC state-party, of stockpiling blister, blood, and choking
agents and possibly making nerve agents. In response, the
Iranian delegate called Rademakers statements baseless
allegations and noted that, although Iran acquired some chemical
weapons capability at the end of its war with Iraq in the 1980s,
it has dismantled its production facilities under OPCW supervision.
He reiterated Irans full support for the convention, highlighting
Irans own tragic experience with Iraqi chemical attacks.
Rademaker also said the United States is working with Sudan to
address U.S. concerns that the country has attempted to obtain the
capability to produce chemical weapons.
He did not name any other states-parties but said more than a dozen
countries currently possess or are actively pursuing chemical weapons.
While some
are not Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention,
others have representatives here in this room.
Rademaker urged the organization to be bold in confronting states
that are violating the convention and added that the United States
has made extensive use of CWC provisions that allow
countries to discuss concerns bilaterally. The United States, however,
has not used the provisions allowed under the treaty to call for
a challenge inspection of Iran or any other country it suspects
of developing chemical weapons.
U.S. Upgrades Presence at OPCW
Rademaker also announced that the United States has appointed Ambassador
Eric Javits as the U.S. representative to the OPCW, upgrading U.S.
representation to permanent resident status. Javits was previously
the representative to the Conference on Disarmament, and his reassignment
is both a sign of U.S. annoyance at the impasse in that conference
and an expression of U.S. support for the OPCWs new director-general.
The United States had led a campaign to oust the organizations
first leader, José Bustani, and successfully won a vote that
removed him in April 2002. Pfirter became the new director-general
in July 2002. (See
ACT, September 2002.)
|