Italy:  Records Show No Abandoned Chemical Weapons In Ethiopia

By Bryan Bender
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — Italy has concluded its military forces did not abandon chemical weapons in Ethiopia during its 1935-36 conflict with what was then called Abyssinia (see GSN, Dec. 10).

“According to our records in Rome, at the end of the 1935-1936 war between Italy and Ethiopia, no deposits of chemical armaments were left in the country,” the Italian government press office said this month in a written response to questions from Global Security Newswire.

Ethiopia, where Italy is believed to have used chemical weapons, has been cited by arms control experts as an example of the difficulties of identifying ownership of so-called abandoned chemical weapons and reaching agreement on how they are to be disposed of when located.

Abandoned chemical weapons are defined by the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention as being manufactured after 1925 and left on the territory of another state.  The abandoning party is responsible for them under the provisions of the chemical weapons treaty.

Ethiopia last year claimed that Italy was breaking international law by not disclosing the location of chemical weapons depots built during the occupation of the area. The discovery in May 2001 of live ammunition and grenades renewed fears that poison gas and other weapons were left behind. 

Moreover, at a recent meeting of the U.N. disarmament fellows, an academic gathering described to Global Security Newswire by an official who attended, Ethiopia’s representative expressed frustration with Italy’s failure to acknowledge ownership of any abandoned weapons, provide documentation, or otherwise take steps toward locating any leftover stockpiles with the intent to destroy them.

“Ethiopia is unhappy with the destruction of chemical weapons as called for under the CWC,” said Jonathan Tucker of the U.S. Institute for Peace said earlier this month.  “In 1936 (former Italian dictator Benito) Mussolini conquered Ethiopia and used mustard gas but apparently the Italians are challenging the fact that they have ownership,” Tucker said.

Italy responded to such claims earlier this month by saying that it has no record of abandoned chemical weapons in Abyssinia, where its military forces are believed to have brought as many as 80,000 tons of chemical munitions.

“Following the Paris convention [the CWC] which prohibits chemical weapons, and [Ethiopia] having [found] unexploded artillery projectiles and bombs … Italy sent a technical delegation headed by the ‘Military Defense Installation NBC’ from Nov. 12 until Nov. 16, 2001,” according to the statement.

“The delegation was accompanied by Ethiopian experts and military personnel,” it added.  “According to the final report issued at the end of the mission, the examined materials consisted only of weapons with conventional loading, and not referable to chemical weapons.”

Italy, meanwhile, has also offered to train Ethiopians “to be able to detect and examine any further suspicious materials,” according to the statement.

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France:  More Terrorism Suspects Found With Chemical Links

French officials arrested five more people last week from a terrorist cell that reportedly was seeking to acquire chemical weapons materials and planned to attack the Russian embassy in Paris, the New York Times reported Friday (see GSN, Dec. 19).

“This cell had decided to hit Russian targets in France,” an Interior Ministry statement said Saturday.

Four suspected militants were arrested in a suburb of Paris Dec. 16 and a fifth man, Nourredine Merabet, was arrested five days later on the French-Spanish border.  Four more people were arrested last week in Romainville, another Parisian suburb, including a trained chemist who has been to Afghanistan and Menad Ben Chellali, whose brother is being held at Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba, the Times reported.

During the Romainville arrests, French authorities discovered a list of chemicals needed to make a gas related to cyanide, officials said.  The list also contained quantities and prices for the components, the Times reported.

Some of those arrested have also spent time in militant training camps in the Caucasus Mountains along Chechnya’s border with Georgia where they met with senior al-Qaeda members who specialized in dangerous toxic materials, according to the French Interior Ministry (Craig Smith, New York Times, Dec. 28).

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