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Annan Calls for States to Work to Prevent Terrorists from Obtaining Biological Weapons
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said yesterday at the 2005 meeting of the states parties to the Biological Weapons Convention that countries must work to ensure that terrorists do not obtain armaments banned by the treaty, the U.N. News Center reported (see GSN, Nov. 3). “It is increasingly understood that bolstering the biological security regime has become a matter of tremendous importance for global health and international peace and security,” Annan said in a message delivered at the Geneva session by Enrique Roman-Morey, deputy secretary general of the Conference on Disarmament. “There has never been more urgent need for international commitment to the universal application and full compliance with the convention,” Annan said. He also warned that scientific developments could create more dangerous biological agents and said talks on the scientific code of conduct could help bolster the weapons convention. “Developments in the life sciences in the years ahead will no doubt bring remarkable benefits, but they may also carry with them, as an almost inevitable corollary, considerable dangers,” Annan said (U.N. News Center, Dec. 5). Hu Xiaodi, leader of the Chinese delegation to the meeting, said yesterday that China is committed to the prohibition of biological weapons and to using biotechnology for peaceful purposes, the Xinhua News Agency reported. “The rapid development and enormous potential of biotechnology and life science have greatly contributed to the fight against diseases and safeguard of health by mankind,” Hu said. “However, they also have brought new challenges to the prevention of the bioterrorism threat and abuse of bioresearch for weapon purposes. In this new situation, scientists bear the special and important duty of implementing the BWC [Biological Weapons Convention] and eliminating the threat of biological weapons,” he added. Hu said that discussing the scientific code of conduct, regulation of scientific behavior and helping scientists to better understand the treaty would promote the control of biological weapons (Xinhua News Agency, Dec. 5).
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