Libya Discloses Production of 23 Tons of Mustard Gas

Saturday, March 6, 2004
By Judith Miller

New York Times Writer

In an interview on Friday, Rogelio Pfirter, director general of the chemical weapons organization, described the mustard gas stockpile as quite sizable, though the former Soviet Union and the United States both declared that they had made thousands of tons of the deadly agent. Mr. Pfirter noted that 23 tons of mustard gas could still have caused serious havoc to civilians and armies of the region had it been used. Libya had been repeatedly accused of having used mustard gas and perhaps other chemical weapons in 1987 in its conflict with neighboring Chad, accusations Libyan officials had denied. The chemical weapons organization never found the allegations sufficiently persuasive to justify sending a mission to Chad to investigate, an organization official said today.

NYT
In a formal declaration on Friday, Libya disclosed that it had produced and stored some 23 tons of deadly mustard gas, according to an international disarmament body that monitors the ban on chemical weapons.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, based in The Hague, said a Libyan delegation had turned over to the organization more than a dozen folders containing details of the illicit chemical weapons program.

In an effort to normalize its relations with the West, the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, announced last December that his country was renouncing chemical, biological and nuclear arms.

As officials at the chemical weapons organization and American officials in Washington began analyzing the Libyan declaration, a State Department-chartered ship loaded with more than 500 metric tons of equipment from Libya's nuclear and other weapons programs was preparing to leave Saturday morning.

The ship, whose name American officials refused to disclose, is carrying nuclear centrifuges and components, equipment from a uranium conversion facility and Libya's five SCUD-C, longer-range missiles, among other equipment and material, administration officials said.

A senior official said that the administration was still discussing the ultimate fate of this material, but that much of it would undoubtedly be destroyed. In late January, two American aircraft flew to the United States carrying nuclear weapons plans, centrifuge designs and components, and containers of chemicals used to enrich uranium.

"This is an astounding achievement," the senior official said of the impending departure of the so-called weapons of mass destruction. "Libya's W.M.D. program will soon be sailing away."

(More: NYTimes.com / International)

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Dan