OPCW Confirms Destruction of Terrorist Chemical Weapons Facilities.

Attacks with the highly toxic satin gas by the terrorist religious sect, Aum-Shinrikyo, in the Tokyo subway in 1995 still conjure up memories of intense panic, suffering and horror. Little, however, has been heard about the facilities in Yamanashi, used by the sect to produce these deadly terrorist weapons. These facilities were declared by the Government of Japan to the Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which is engaged in implementing the Chemical Weapons Convention - the first disarmament agreement of its kind engaged in the elimination of an entire category of weapons of mass destruction. After a set of initial inspections required under the Convention, destruction plans for the facilities were drawn up and carried out. On 9 December 1998, a team of three inspectors from OPCW embarked on a special three-day mission to Japan, where they checked and Confirmed that the facilities had been completely destroyed.

Designed primarily to prohibit the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons and related facilities and their destruction within a specified period of 10 years, the Convention encompasses a broad scope and covers not only military facilities but also facilities in the civilian chemical industry which deal with dual-use chemicals. With a membership of 121, and with signatures of another 48 countries worldwide, OPCW truly represents a new generation of multilateral disarmament institutions. Employing 209 highly trained inspectors out of roughly 500 personnel at its headquarters, the Organization has already received declarations confirming current or past activities related to chemical weapons from nine of its Member States. Four out of nine countries have declared existing stockpiles of chemical weapons. These weapons are slated for total destruction under continuous international monitoring. Over 400 inspections at more than 80 chemical weapons-related facilities, as well as at the civilian chemical industry sites in 28 countries, have been carried out by OPCW thus far. Its Director-General, Jose M. Bustani, strongly emphasizes OPCW's professional and impartial approach, which has imparted the character of robustness to the Organization as a whole and has already gained the well deserved trust and authority of the international community.

The Chemical Weapons Convention was negotiated in e Conference on Disarmament in Geneva and was a true product of the end of the cold...