High Time to Destroy Chemical Weapons

Mikhail Gorbachev's speech to the Belgian Senate ,Wednesday 22 November 2000

Brussels, November, 2000–Mikhail Gorbachev, president of the global environmental organization Green Cross, called today (Wednesday, 22 November) for the destruction of huge stockpiles of chemical weapons worldwide, specifically in Russia and the United States.

"The continued existence of these enormous, dangerous and costly stockpiles is a threat to all of us," said the former President of the Soviet Union, who was invited to address the Belgian Senate on the subject.

"Nerve gases, mustard gas, lewisite and other dangerous chemical agents kill indiscriminately, especially when they are detonated by terrorist groups in public places or leak from stockpile sites and drift downwind. These old arsenals also constitute serious public health and environmental hazards to local communities. But our main concern must be global security. The proliferation threat is real. Many of them are small enough to fit into a backpack yet powerful enough to kill thousands. Moreover, they are vulnerable to theft and diversion.

"I wrote recently to around 40 national leaders in Europe and the Americas, among them the President of the Belgian Senate, Armand De Decker, asking them to join me in an international campaign to rid the world once and for all time of these hideous weapons," Gorbachev went on.

Just three years ago the U.S. Senate and the Russian Duma ratified the International Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), a remarkable achievement which took over 12 years to negotiate, and which started on my watch. Today, 173 countries are signatories. This agreement bans researching, developing, producing, stockpiling or using chemical weapons, and obliges signatories to destroy stockpiles.

"In my opinion this treaty is an historic breakthrough in nondiscriminatory, verifiable, global disarmament of weapons of mass destruction." "It creates an excellent precedent for efforts to abolish nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, the Convention has not been adequately implemented."

This is because Russia's Post-Cold War economic and social situation has made it very difficult to undertake a costly destruction programme, especially since the U.S. Congress, after committing $200 million to help Russia build a facility, froze financial assistance. Their action was motivated by the belief that neither Russia nor the international community was doing enough. There is progress, however, in this connection, because last month, during its 2001 budget debate, the Russian Duma approved an allocation of $ 120 million, six times that of the previous year for the chemical weapon destruction programme. And a number of European countries, among them Germany, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland, have contributed about $ 50 million. Prime Minister Tony Blair has promised around $ 20 million. Altogether a dozen countries and the European Union have pledged $ 100 million.

Between them Russia and the U.S. have around 65,000 tons of deadly chemical weapons stockpiled at 16 major sites. American stockpiles of approximately 25,000 tons are located in eight states (Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Oregon and Utah) and on Johnston Atoll in the Pacific.

The substantially larger seven Russian stockpiles, totaling 40,000 tons, are concentrated in western Russia, and one east of the Urals.

Belgium also has a very large stockpile of chemical weapons — mostly obsolete gases dating back to World War I.

With the exception of much smaller arsenals in India which are now being destroyed under Convention auspices, Russia and the U.S. are the only chemical weapon superpowers today.

On the positive side, as of this month, the U.S. has destroyed almost 7,000 tons of its original stockpile of 31,500 tons, or roughly 22%, at Johnston Atoll and in Utah, and destruction facilities are under construction at five other stockpile sites. The total cost for the U.S. will be around 15 to $20 billion, far surpassing the initial cost of creating the arsenals.

Of Russia's seven major stockpiles, only the Gorny arsenal of old lewisite in the Saratov Oblast (county) has started to build a destruction facility, thanks to German help. One other site, Shchuch'ye in the Kurgan Oblast just north of Kazakhstan, which holds 5,400 tons of Russian VX and other nerve agents in artillery shells and missile warheads, has made some progress with American support under the Cooperative Threat Reduction Programme. At the other five sites there has been no construction, although some infrastructure, monitoring and outreach work has been accomplished.

The treaty requires ratifying powers to eliminate their chemical arsenals by the year 2012.

But the cost of destroying the seven-site, 45,000 tons of Russian chemical weapons, is estimated at present at $ 6 to 10 billion. While the Russian arsenal is one-third larger than the American, its weapons are less complicated and less loaded with explosives and propellants, making disassembly and destruction a more straightforward process.

The U.S. successfully destroyed 7,000 tons of chemical weapons by incineration. But in the past several years there has been considerable technological development that may offer less costly methods.

"I am sure that when our nations built these weapons," comments Gorbachev, "they never dreamed of how difficult and expensive it would be to destroy them."

Obviously, the people who live near the chemical stockpiles that are to be destroyed in Russia and the U.S. are the most worried about possible leakages, accidents and terrorist acts. To win their agreement to destroy the stockpiles — in their backyards, so to speak — it is essential to consult them in a democratic manner, Gorbachev emphasizes. Everyone involved must have a say in the dialogue, and the process must be transparent.

Not all chemical weapons are stockpiled on land, Gorbachev points out. "After World War II many countries rid themselves of their chemical arms by simply dumping them into the North Sea. Some 40,000 tons are sitting on the sea bottom, waiting to leak or to enter the marine food chain."

There was also dumping in the Baltic after the last war by Germany and, to a lesser degree, by Russia and other countries. These immersed chemical weapons are particularly dangerous, because the Baltic sea is shallow. Fishermen regularly find shells containing mustard gas in their nets and are badly burned. Such incidents are common. Other chemical weapons also include arsenic, which could leak into the food chain.

Established in Geneva in 1993, Green Cross International consists of 26 national organizations from every continent.

(Note to journalists: for additional information about the Wednesday 22 November press conference in Brussels, please contact :

Paul Ress, Green Cross press officer, at the New Hotel Charlemagne, Brussels, from mid-day Monday 20 November to mid-day Wednesday 22 November: tel: +32-2-230.21.35,

fax: +32-2-230.25.10, E-mail: info@new-hotel.com.)