Chemical Arms Inspectors Slowed By Cash Shortfall

by Thalif Deen

As of October, the Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) had verified the destruction of some 7,050 tons of chemical and associated agents, about 10 percent of the total stockpile of chemical weapons declared by over 10 countries.

"The OPCW has been underfunded for several years now," Ambassador Lionel Fernando of Sri Lanka, chairman of the OPCW executive council, told IPS. "The underfunding has had an impact on OPCW inspections," he added.

OPCW's tasks include inspecting production facilities and weapons stockpiles and destroying chemical weapons.

The inspections slow down comes at a time of rising threats from weapons of mass destruction worldwide. Last month, British police arrested three men who were accused of plotting to release cyanide gas in London's subway system.

In August, videotapes obtained from Afghanistan lent weight to fears that the al-Qaeda terrorist network had developed chemical agents for use as weapons of terror. The tapes, aired by Cable News Network (CNN), appeared to show the agonizing deaths of three dogs exposed to chemical agents.

And in October, Russian security forces used an incapacitating nerve gas against a group of Chechen rebels holding hostages in a Moscow theatre, resulting in 123 deaths, most of them Russian.

Although the use of the gas violated the spirit of the CWC, the Russian authorities said the chemical agent used in the attack was a riot-control weapon and is not prohibited by the treaty.

A team from the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) is currently in Iraq searching for weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

The UN Special Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM), the predecessor to UNMOVIC, supervised the destruction of over 38,500 filled and empty chemical munitions and about 48,000 tons of chemical weapons agents in Iraq from 1991 to 1998.

The Iraq programs are outside the purview of OPCW.

According to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, about 10 countries either possess chemical weapons or have the capacity to produce them. These are the United States, Russia, China, Israel, India, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Egypt and Syria.

Pakistan, Libya and Sudan, are said to have active chemical weapons programs.

Russia is said to possess the world's largest stockpile of the weapons, some 40,000 tons, while the U.S. stockpile is estimated at 31,000 tons. India has not gone public with its stockpiles, but is cooperating with the OPCW in destroying its stock of chemical agents.

Following the organization's financial crisis in 2000, the OPCW cut its activities, making fewer inspections and verifications, said Fernando.

Some of those cuts have been restored, he said, thanks to voluntary contributions by states, "but there is clearly a need to address the issue of funding with a view to making sure that future budgets are adequate for verification and other programs."

Recently, the OPCW has made fewer inspections than planned in the chemical industry because of the funding difficulties, he added.

The OPCW is funded with assessed contributions from the 146 nations that signed the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which banned the use of chemical agents, and weapons. OPCW also receives about $500,000 in voluntary contributions, mostly from European nations.

Although the inspection and destruction of chemical weapons facilities are supposed to be funded by the states concerned, most of them have lagged far behind in paying both their assessed contributions and in reimbursing expenses incurred by the OPCW during inspections.

OPCW Director-General Rogelio Pfirter of Argentina told the UN committee on disarmament and international security in October that both the United States and India had met their obligations to destroy 20 percent of their declared chemical weapons stockpiles within five years after the entry into force of the CWC in 1997.

Russia is expected to make "significant progress," he said, especially with the opening of a new destruction facility in Gorny.

Since Russia has said it does not have the funds to destroy all of its weapons on time, it has sought an extension of its 2007 deadline, says the OPCW. A decision on a new deadline is expected at the conference of states parties to the convention, scheduled for mid-December.

Under its current program, Russia is expected to destroy about one percent of its chemical weapons stockpile by 2003; 20 percent by 2007; and 45 percent by 2008. By 2012, it is expected to have destroyed all of its weapons.

The total costs of eliminating Russia's chemical weapons and weapons facilities have been estimated at over $3.5 billion. The United States is expected to provide some of the funds under the so-called Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which earmarks money to projects that would prevent the theft of weapons of mass destruction from Russian arsenals.