Global Security Newswire

Lithuania on Monday called for continued attention to the danger posed by chemical weapons dumped decades ago in the Baltic Sea, the Baltic News Service reported (see GSN, Aug. 4, 2006).

"We would like to highlight that chemical weapons dumped at sea pose a threat to the entire international community," acting Lithuanian Foreign Minister Vygaudas Usackas said in a statement. "Therefore, this issue has to be permanently raised in international organizations and frameworks."

The Baltic Sea was used as a repository for tens of thousands of tons of chemical weapons confiscated from Germany after World War II, according to a 1995 report from a working group of the Helsinki Commission (Baltic News Service, July 20).