IK/67
SC/5810
25 March 1994
SPECIAL COMMISSION COMPLETES DESTRUCTION OF IRAQ'S DECLARED AND RECOVERED
STOCKPILE OF CHEMICAL WARFARE AGENTS
The following has been received from the Special Commission set up under
Security Council resolution 687 (1991) in connection with the disposal of
Iraq's weapons of mass destruction:
The Chemical Destruction Group, part of the United Nations Special
Commission entrusted with destroying Iraq's former stocks of chemical warfare
agents and production capabilities, has reported that it has completed the
destruction of Iraq's stocks of the chemical warfare agent sulphur mustard.
With this, the Group has completed the destruction of Iraq's declared and
recovered stockpile of chemical warfare agents.
A total of some 400,000 litres of sulphur has been destroyed by the
Special Commission at the Muthanna site. Sulphur mustard is a blister agent
which relies for its effect on its reaction with skin. It causes lesions
which fill with liquid. Victims exposed to mustard gas without the protection
of gas masks also suffer severe injury to their lungs, which may result in the
lungs filling with liquid to the extent that the victims effectively drowns.
The Special Commission has also, through its activities at Mughanna,
destroyed nearly 28,000 chemical munitions (rockets, missile warheads,
artillery shells and bombs), nearly 83,000 litres of nerve agents, over
1,220,000 litres of key precursor chemicals for the production of mustard or
nerve agents, and some 421,000 litres, 1,035,500 kilograms and 197 barrels of
other chemical precursors.
A small amount of other precursor chemicals remain to be destroyed at
Muthanna, in addition to quantities of equipment for the production of
chemical warfare agents. Thereafter, a comprehensive survey of the site will
be conducted to ensure that no chemical warfare hazard remains at the site.
Any additional items requiring destruction discovered during this survey will
be dealt with at that stage. It is suspected that there may be a quantity of
155-millimetre mustard-filled artillery shells buried at one part of the
site. Iraq has agreed to assist the Commission in the identification and
recovery of these munitions in the coming weeks, after which they will also be
destroyed.
.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
