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CWC: Director General Says Organization ‘Back on its Feet’ By David Ruppe and Scott Hartmann “While we still are faced in the future with a very lean budget, I’m confident the organization is back on its feet and will be able to cope with future commitments, including the crucial ones on verification and will be able to address the expectations in terms of international cooperation,” said OPCW Director General Rogelio Pfirter in an interview this week with Global Security Newswire. Pfirter, who assumed the position of director general in July, cited “renewed political support” leading to an increase in the OPCW budget this month and a voluntary contribution of $2 million by the United States as helping to turn things around (see GSN, Oct. 15). “What I believe is that the present budget does contain sufficient resources for the number of inspections member states want us to make, both on the chemical weapons as well as on the industry sites,” he said. The organization could find itself short on resources in the future, however, as the destruction activities of chemical weapons stockpiles in Russia are increased, which could result in the expansion of the organization’s monitoring activities, Pfirter said. Speaking at the United Nations this week, he cited estimates such activities might increase fivefold in “the very near future.” “Certainly the verification load on the organization will be heavier if all of these facilities come into operation,” he told GSN. “So member states will have to look I believe inevitably in the future at how to distribute the resources and whether they really will be all the resources we need.” A recent study by the U.K.-based organization VERTIC concluded OPCW’s resources are devoted too heavily to verification of declared stocks to the detriment of investigations to detect illegal new chemical weapons production (see GSN, Oct. 16). Pfirter said more attention and resources will be devoted to those inspections in accordance with the recent decision by the conference of the states parties, which this month also approved a “compromise formulation” to fund 60 such inspections. The conference also decided to rebalance the number of inspections next year to include “more of the relevant installations producing, consuming or processing discrete organic chemicals,” he told the United Nations. The ability to conduct all field inspections, and the OPCW’s general financial health, however, could depend on the willingness of treaty parties to pay their full dues to the organization, he said. “There is a renewed political support for the organization. So, I hope that member states are confident, and that member states will reflect that in terms of coming forward with assessed contributions.” A Change of Administration Pfirter, who is from Argentina, succeeded a controversial Brazilian director general, Jose Bustani, who was removed from office in April by a vote of the member states (see GSN, April 23). A number of major contributing states, including the United States, had withheld dues citing Bustani’s management approach and other issues (see GSN, Jan. 15). Member states voted last week to increase the organization’s budget by 10 percent and Pfirter said he is planning to initiate a “management review” next week that will examine the organization’s operations during the past five years and seek possible areas for improvement, including finding ways to improve efficiency. Pfirter said relations with the United States, the organization’s largest contributor, have been good so far during his administration. Relations between the OPCW and the United States were strained earlier this year during the semipublic U.S. campaign to oust Bustani. “I think those relations are excellent. I personally feel very reassured about the support of the United States for the organization,” he said, citing expressions of support received during a recent trip to Washington, the voluntary $2 million U.S. contribution, and his understanding the Bush administration will appoint a permanent representative to the organization. Ambassador Eric Javits, the U.S. permanent representative to the stalemated Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, will be moving to take the job, according to U.S. State Department officials (see GSN, March 27). For many in the arms control community, the treaty is considered an important arms control symbol, as it is the single multilateral instrument providing for WMD disarmament, nonproliferation, verification and assistance at the same time. “The CWC stands as an example of what can be achieved when the political will exists to tackle questions of global concern through the formidable power of an internationally agreed instrument,” Pfirter said Wednesday in an address to the U.N. General Assembly’s First Committee on Disarmament and International Security in New York. Pfirter “is doing a good job on all accounts,” said VERTIC Executive Director Trevor Findlay, but he anticipated continued differences among treaty parties over how much further OPCW should expand its activities. “There will be tensions between states that want to keep strengthening the organization and moving it forward and those that think it is doing enough already.” Universality The treaty currently has 146 parties and the OPCW is responsible for recruiting uncommitted states until the treaty has the universal membership of all 193 independent countries. Pfirter said achieving universality “is crucial also to the success of the organization.” He said the organization has launched a “program of action” in Africa to attract the 17 nonmembers there, and also is working to encourage nonmembers in the Pacific and the Caribbean. For such countries, he said, “we have to work on demonstrating to them that there is a good case for joining the convention, there are benefits that have to do with peace, security, and international cooperation.” Pfirter says the Middle East is a special case, where tensions may make it difficult to recruit members. “The eventual decisions of countries in the Middle East have to do with a much larger problem than chemical weapons themselves and so we look with expectation and a sense of anticipation to that when that happens. But I don’t think the issue of chemical weapons can be taken in isolation of the overall situation there,” he said. According to Henry L. Stimson Center release, U.S. government and open source information suggest that more than a dozen countries have active chemical weapons programs, including China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Libya, Myanmar, North Korea, Pakistan, South Africa, South Korea, Sudan, Syria, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Yugoslavia. Eleven countries have acknowledged existing or former stocks and four of those have acknowledged existing stocks that are expected to be destroyed under the treaty, including India, Russia, the United States and South Korea, the center says. For further information, see:
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