Üzümcü: "After Syria I do not see any country able to use chemical weapons anymore"
The last day of October, a sunny Friday in The Hague, I met with Ambassador Ahmet Üzümcü to reflect on the previous year and a half, during which the civil war in Syria suddenly thrust the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) into the spotlight. In March 2013 United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon requested technical assistance from the OPCW to investigate alleged chemical weapon (CW) use in the war-torn country. Six months later, after a serious incident in which sarin nerve agent killed and poisoned many hundreds of people in the Ghouta district of Damascus, Syria unexpectedly joined …
Chemical weapons in the Middle East remain sensitive
On 4 December I addressed a workshop on Nuclear Safety, Security and WMD Non-proliferation. The event was organised by Atomic Reporters and the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (VCDNP), together with the Stanley Foundation and the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS). The target audience consisted of more than 20 journalists from or working in the Middle East. My presentation ‘Responding to chemical weapon use in Syria’ addressed the allegations of chemical weapon (CW) use in Syria since early 2013 and the international CW disarmament operation over the past 15 months. The audience’s reactions at times illustrated how sensitive …
Chlorine: A weapon of last resort for ISIL? (Part 2)
From September 2014 on several reports have alleged chlorine use by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Iraq. The claims began shortly after the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) had released its first report on its investigation into the chlorine attacks in Syria earlier in the year. In a politically highly charged atmosphere in which supporters and opponents of the regime of President Bashir al-Assad use any incident to blame insurgent forces of atrocities or call for regime change, one must necessarily view accusations of chemical warfare with a healthy dose of scepticism. …
Innocence Slaughtered
Innocence Slaughtered Gas and the transformation of warfare and society Jean Pascal Zanders (ed) Publication: December 2015 Table of Contents Ahmet Üzümcü (Director-General Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons): Preface Jean Pascal Zanders: Introduction Jean Pascal Zanders: The Road to The Hague Olivier Lepick: Towards total war: Langemarck, 22 April 1915 Luc Vandeweyer: The Belgian Army and the gas attack on 22 April 1915 Dominiek Dendooven: 22 April 1915 – Eyewitness accounts of the first gas attack Julian Putkowski: Toxic Shock: The British Army’s reaction to German poison gas during the Second Battle of Ypres David Omissi: The Indian …
Innocence Slaughtered – Forthcoming book
The introduction of chemical warfare to the battlefield on 22 April 1915 changed the face of total warfare. Not only did it bring science to combat, it was both the product of societal transformation and a shaper of the 20th century societies. This collaborative work investigates the unfolding catastrophe that the unleashing of chlorine against the Allied positions meant for individual soldiers and civilians. It describes the hesitation on the German side about the effectiveness, and hence impact on combat operations of the weapon whilst reflecting on the lack of Allied response to the many intelligence pointers that something significant …
Investigation of alleged chlorine attacks in the Idlib Governorate (Syria) in March – May 2015
On 29 October, the Technical Secretariat of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) circulated three reports on investigations of alleged chemical weapons (CW) use in Syria. On 5 November Reuters published some details from the one addressing the alleged use of sulphur mustard agent in Marea, a town to the north of Aleppo, on 21 August. The two other reports address a series of incidents between 15 December 2014 and 15 June 2015 at the request of the Syrian government and between 16 March and 20 May 2015 in the Idlib Governorate documented by a variety of …
Innocence Slaughtered – Book launch at OPCW
Described by Ambassador Ahmet Üzümcü, Director-General of the OPCW, as a ‘remarkable compilation of materials, rich in detail and edited in the finest traditions of highly readable scholarship’, Innocence Slaughtered is a new book that will launch with a panel discussion on 2 December, from 13.00-15.00 at this year’s Conference of States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention. Edited by Dr Jean Pascal Zanders, the book features the writings of eleven experts and historians on gas warfare and chemical weapons and is being published to coincide with the first phosgene attack in WWI on 19 December 1915. The launch event …
CW incidents alleged by the Syrian government: an industrial chemical as likely cause?
My previous posting (16 November) presented the findings by the Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) concerning allegations of the use of chlorine as a chemical weapon in Syria’s Idlib Governorate. The FFM concluded that the incidents likely involved the use of a toxic chemical containing the element chlorine as a weapon. This report was one of three that the Technical Secretariat of the OPCW transmitted to states party to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) for consideration at a special session of the Executive Council on 23 November. The other two reports address …
Innocence Slaughtered: Book launch at the OPCW
Wednesday, 2 December, Innocence Slaughtered finally saw the light. At a lunch-time side event at the OPCW Headquarters during the Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention in The Hague, the book got presented to an audience of some 40 people. Ambassador Ahmet Üzümcü, Director-General of the OPCW, opened the proceedings, followed by Mr Jef Verschoore, Deputy-Mayor of Ieper and Chairperson of the In Flanders Fields museum, sponsor of the publication project. One of the chapter authors, medical historian Dr Leo van Bergen reflected on the deeper meaning of the book’s title: Innocence Slaughtered. Mr Dominiek …
Syrian soldiers exposed to ‘sarin or a sarin-like substance’
In November I presented the main findings of the preliminary Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) report of 29 October. This particular investigation of alleged use by the Technical Secretariat of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) had been requested by Syria. Government officials had transmitted four Notes Verbales alleging 26 chemical weapon (CW) events resulting in 432 casualties. The preliminary report focussed primarily on incidents at Jobar (northeast of Damascus) on 29 August 2014. While the investigators believed that government soldiers had been exposed to an irritant, they could not confirm that the chemical had been used as a …