Disarmament Diplomacy

Issue No. 57, May 2001

News Review

Concerns over US, Russia CW Destruction Plans

On April 25, a hearing of the Senate Appropriates Defense Subcommittee reviewed evidence of apparently serious problems in the US programme to eliminate its 31,496-ton chemical weapons stockpile. The Chemical Weapons Convention stipulates that states parties possessing chemical weapons should destroy them within ten years of the Convention's entry into force (1997), though provision is made for consideration of a deadline extension in exceptional circumstances. The US has so far destroyed 22% of its stockpile. Despite a sceptical report last year by the General Accounting Office (GAO), Defense Department officials, insist that 2007 remains a viable target date for 100% elimination. However, an internal Army memorandum, provided to the Subcommittee by the independent Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG), warned of an overrun of at least five years, due to myriad technical, financial and management problems at numerous sites. Subcommittee members expressed dismay at the memo, and also expressed concern at safety and environmental hazards which the CWWG and other groups claim to accompany the current incineration method. In the damning words of Republican Senator Mitch McConnell:

"If General Washington had run the Continental Army the way our chemical weapons destruction efforts have been managed, it is an absolute certainty that we would still be sipping tea and dining on crumpets. I am not exaggerating when I say that in all my years as a Senator, I have never seen a federal problem that is more poorly managed. What exacerbates this problem is the reality that poor oversight can lead to much more than increased costs and schedule delays - it can lead to disastrous accidents that seriously threaten men, women and children in communities around the country. ... One need only look at the mountain of Army, DoD and private reports which have been issued on the Chemical Demilitarization Program over the last decade to see that the need for reform is real. In 1985, the initial estimate for the cost of destroying America's stockpile was $1.7 billion. The latest publically stated cost projection is $14.1 billion. That is a staggering increase of 829%. What have we gained with that extra cost? According to a 1998 independent review, 'Even inside the DoD and the Army, the program lacks credibility; no one appears to want to take charge because it is seen as a disaster with no solution.'"

The CWWG sees the solution as lying in a switch to non-incinerating destruction methods. According to the Group's Director, Craig Williams (April 25): "The Army has used the treaty deadline as a club to beat communities into accepting incineration as a disposal technology, despite the existence of safer, cleaner disposal methods. In doing so, the Army ignored a Congressional mandate to offer workers and the public 'maximum protection' during the disposal process. Now that we know [from the leaked Army memorandum] incineration cannot meet treaty deadlines, there's no reason not to pursue better technologies."

On May 4, the Russian government announced the establishment of a new committee to coordinate the behind-schedule elimination of the country's chemical weapons stockpile. According to the Itar-Tass news agency, Zinovy Pak, the head of the Munitions Agency, has set a deadline of April 29, 2002, for the destruction - reportedly of 8,800 tons of the 44,000-ton stockpile - to begin. See last issue for more details of the troubled destruction programme, and Russian appeals for financial assistance with the estimated $7 billion of construction, storage and implementation costs involved.

Reports: Army lags in weapon destruction, Associated Press, April 25; Pueblo arms-destruction plan assailed, Denver Rocky Mountain News, April 25; Secret army document reveals chem.. weapons incineration program cannot meet deadlines set by international treaty, Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG) Press Release, April 25; Statement of Senator Mitch McConnell from Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on chemical weapons demilitarisation, April 25, 2001, CWWG website, http://www.cwwg.org; Russia to destroy chemical weapons, Associated Press, May 4; Russia slow to destroy weapons.