Russia:  Chemical Disposal Commission Requests Additional Funds

The Russian commission responsible for overseeing efforts to dispose of Russian chemical weapons has requested that funding for the effort be tripled this year, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, June 5).

Commission members support a request by the agency conducting the disposal effort for increased funding, said commission Chairman Sergei Kiriyenko.  Moscow has allocated more than $160 million in this year’s budget for chemical weapons disposal, AP reported.

In 1997, Russian officials agreed to destroy its chemical weapons stockpile by 2007.  However, officials now say they will need a five-year extension, according to AP.  To date, Russia has destroyed only 1 percent of its chemical arsenal (Associated Press, June 10).

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Belgium:  Authorities Describe Suspect Groups in Tainted Letter Investigation

Belgian authorities believe that a set of 10 tainted letters mailed last week to various targets were sent either by Muslim fundamentalists or opponents to the recent war in Iraq, De Standaard reported last week (see GSN, June 6).

“At first sight and following analysis of the letters’ addressees, we seem to have to seek the perpetrators in Muslim fundamentalist circles or those of people who were opposed to the U.S. arms transports from our country to Iraq,” said Lieve Pellens, spokesperson for the federal prosecutor’s office.

The 10 letters each contained a cardboard container that held a mixture of small amounts of phenarsazine and hydrazine, according to De Standaard.  Two of the containers were marked with the legend Islamic International Society, which is not known to be connected to terrorist activities.

Judicial sources said that at least one cardboard container included the message “Set our brothers free.  Bastards.”  This message could refer to a trial of 23 Islamic extremists currently being held in Brussels, De Standaard reported.  One of the defendants in that trial, Nizar Trabelsi, is believed to have sought hydrazine for use in producing a bomb (Mark Eeckhaut, De Standaard, June 5 in FBIS-WEU, June 5).

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Belgium:  Authorities Detain Iraqi Man Over Tainted Letters

An Iraqi man has been detained after 10 letters containing dangerous chemicals were sent to a number of targets in Belgium, Belgian police said yesterday (see GSN, June 5).

The 45-year-old man was detained Wednesday in the western town of Deinze, said Glenn Audenaert, head of the investigation.  The letters were sent to the Belgian prime minister’s office, the U.S. and British embassies and a court trying al-Qaeda suspects.  Twenty people were treated at area hospitals after being exposed to the phenarsazine chloride, an arsenic derivative used in nerve gas (Reuters/Washington Post, June 6).

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