Russia:  Lewisite Destruction Line Begins Testing

Russian officials have begun to test a lewisite disposal line at a chemical weapons destruction plant in Gorny, ITAR-Tass reported Monday (see GSN, July 29, 2002).

The “testing is being carried out using a neutral medium, without pumping in war gases,” a spokesman for the Saratov region’s information and analysis center on safe storage and destruction of chemical weapons said.

Officials will begin to destroy small amounts of lewisite in the second half of May, and the line will be launched in June, according to ITAR-Tass.  Russia is expected to destroy 20 percent of its chemical weapons stockpile by 2007 (ITAR-Tass, May 12 in FBIS-SOV, May 13).

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U.S. Response:  Customs Bureau Trains Canine Chemical Detectors

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is training dogs to detect chemical weapons, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, Oct. 29, 2002).

The Homeland Security Department’s Bureau of Customs and Border Protection — which began the program with a budget of $2 million — has reportedly encountered success with the program, which oversees the training of Labrador retrievers, German shepherds and Belgian Malinois.

“There had been some initial research that suggested that canines might be effective with chemicals,” said Customs Commissioner Robert Bonner.  Dogs provide “portability, and they also allow you to detect chemical weapons before they are released,” he added.

Dogs have often been used to detect explosives or narcotics, but the use of dogs in chemical weapons detection is groundbreaking, according to Jim Watson, secretary of the North American Police Work Dog Association.

“Dogs can detect compounds that the human nose could never pick up at the same concentration: the concentration can be a hundred- or a thousand-fold weaker,” said Charles Wysocki, a neuroscientist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia.

The dogs are being trained to detect nonlethal components of chemical weapons.  When a specially trained dog finds a suspected chemical weapon, it will be trained to give certain signals, such as snapping its head back or perking up its ears, according to the Times.

“The idea is this:  If I’m looking for a Big Mac and I know that Big Macs are deadly, I’m looking for the special sauce that is not lethal,” said Lee Titus, director of the Customs Bureau’s canine enforcement program (Philip Shenon, New York Times, May 13).

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CWC:  East Timor Ratifies Treaty

East Timor last week ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention (see GSN, March 5).  When East Timor’s accession takes effect June 6, it will become the 152nd party to the treaty, which aims to eliminate chemical weapons by 2007 (Agence France-Presse, May 12).

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CWC:  Review Conference Reaffirms Treaty Goals

By David Ruppe
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — At a time when other major nonproliferation regimes appear the subject of contention, the first review conference of the Chemical Weapons Convention concluded positively Friday with unanimous approval of a political statement and a final review declaration (see GSN, May 7).

“They were able to complete everything in consensus and in good cheer, which indicates that there is really broad-based political support for the way in which the job is being carried out,” according to Peter Kaiser, spokesman for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which administers the treaty from The Hague.

“Things obviously could have gone in a different direction, so it’s being considered politically a success,” he said, referring to reported disagreements at a meeting of states parties to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which ran simultaneously in Geneva from April 28 through May 9 (see GSN, May 9).

According to an official from a major Western party, the documents contained “useful affirmations and reminders to states parties to fully meet their obligations” and a work program for discussions of further efforts to improve implementation of the treaty, particularly by taking into account legal issues and scientific and technological developments.

“I would regard those as good positive things coming out of a review conference, given the history of review conferences in the arena of weapons of mass destruction, we’ve got about a 50 percent hit rate in terms of actually achieving an agreement on any document whatsoever,” the official said, noting the failure to approve a protocol at the fifth Biological Weapons Convention review conference in December 2001 (see GSN, Dec. 10, 2001).

Reaffirmed Goals

In a three-page political statement, the treaty parties attending the conference at The Hague reaffirmed their support for the basic goals of the treaty, including the elimination of the possibility of future chemical weapons use, destruction of declared stockpiles and production capacities, support for chemical weapons nonproliferation and confidence-building measures, and establishment of a system for verification of compliance with the treaty’s provisions. 

They also offered support for complete national implementation of the treaty’s requirements, and of international cooperation and assistance in the peaceful uses of chemistry, a goal emphasized by developing states.

They also emphasized continuing the consideration of scientific and technological developments, which some experts have argued should prompt treaty parties to address the issue of the legality of chemical incapacitating agents (see GSN, April 30).  The political declaration made no specific reference to such agents, however.

A more detailed, 32-page final declaration may not be released until next week when treaty parties’ edits are finally incorporated into the text, Kaiser said.  That declaration is intended to make more specific recommendations for changes to how the treaty is implemented, which could receive consideration at the next annual treaty session.

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Czech Response:  Chemical Warfare Specialists Return Home

After spending several months in Kuwait, Czech chemical warfare specialists are heading home, according to the Prague Pravo (see GSN, Feb. 12).

The chemical detection battalion at Camp Doha has been serving in the Gulf region for more than a year (see GSN, Feb. 27, 2002).  The first 30 soldiers returned to the Czech Republic Wednesday, accompanied by Czech Defense Minister Jaroslav Tvrdik, while another 100 will return next week (Prague Pravo, May 6 in FBIS-EEU, May 8).

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