CWC Members Approve Libya Plant Conversion

By David Ruppe
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — A conference of Chemical Weapons Convention parties today approved Libya’s proposal to convert its former chemical weapons production facility at Rabta into a pharmaceutical plant (see GSN, Oct. 15).

Libya joined the treaty last February and soon after began destroying chemical weapons stores and capabilities.

It additionally has sought approval, with U.S. support, to convert the facility to enable production of low-cost vaccines and medicines to treat diseases such as AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in Africa.

In a first crucial step, the Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in October endorsed a technical change to the treaty that would allow late joiners such as Libya to convert facilities instead of destroying them. The initial deadline for all conversions to take place was April 29, 2003, six years after the treaty entered into force.

Libya’s detailed plan for conversion and verification by the organization is meant to assure member states that the facility will retain no specialized military equipment and will be used only for peaceful purposes, said OPCW spokesman Peter Kaiser. 

“When you enter into this conversion process, you’re entering into a very complex and protracted process of continual measures to produce confidence and also to certify compliance so there’s no question whatsoever in the minds of any of the states parties involved,” he said.

Kaiser said the facility would be “checked and rechecked systematically by the organization” over a 10-year period to ensure the plant’s configuration of technology, equipment and process flow has been changed “to make sure it will be entirely peaceful.”

He attributed the rapid progress of Libya’s destruction and conversion of its chemical weapons capabilities since joining the treaty to Tripoli’s initiative, along with support by other member states and the OPCW secretariat.

“In less then 10 months they’ve actually run the gamut of compliance and confidence-building measures that other countries have sometimes taken five years for,” he said.

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