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This story was printed from Warfare,
located at /27393/dreamwvr/warfare/worldmap.htm
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WORLDMAP
CHINA
China has developed an advanced chemical warfare capability and its
arsenal of delivery systems include the use of spray tanks, aerial bombs and
specially modified artillery shells.
The Chinese government has been maintaining a chemical and biological warfare
division since the early 1950s and has been responsible for the development and
weaponization of many agents. Its biological warfare program included
manufacturing infectious microbes and toxins as well as various chemical agents.
China is equipped with an impressive array of ballistic and inter-continental
missiles and is currently involved in a scheme to upgrade her offensive
capabilities. Due to the severe decline of conventional arms exports, Beijing
has been reluctant to reduce its remaining weapons exports and as a result,
China is suspected of exporting chemical weaponry to Iran, among other
countries.
Hopefully, the Clinton administration can pressure China into discontinuing the
various chemical and biological weapons (CBW) programs it has and successfully
oversee the demilitarization of China's CBW initiatives.
IRAQ VS IRAN
These 2 neighbouring superpower wannabes have been engaged in border
skirmishes and the occasional full-scale invasion for centuries. However, with
the advent of both chemical and biological weapons, these wars have turned
increasingly bloody. Both Iran and Iraq are parties to the Geneva Protocol,
having signed it on 1929 and 1931 respectively.
Basically, this protocol disallows its member nations from using any form of
chemical and bacteriological agents against another country. Ever since the late
seventies and early eighties, a series of ghastly chemical skirmishes have been
exposed by the UN. In November 1980, Tehran Radio revealed that the Iraqi's had
deployed chemical bombs at Susangerd. The international community did not pay
much attention.
It was only around 4 years later, when the Iranian Foreign Minister informed the
Conference of Disarmament in Geneva that there had been over 45 documented
accounts of Iraqi troops attacking both civilians and military personnel in the
hotly contested border regions. The death toll was catastrophic, with 109 people
dead and hundreds more wounded.
On the very same day, Iran started a major offensive and a week later, a series
of attacks and counter attacks was launched further south, in the border
marshlands to the north of Basra where Iraq has vast unexploited oil and gas
reserves. In the months after the Foreign Minister's allegations, Iraq used
chemical weapons on at least 14 other occasions, injuring more than 2200 people.
VERIFYING THE TRUTH
In an effort to verify Iran's accusations against it's hostile
neighbor, the UN sent a team of specialists to investigate Iraq's alleged use of
chemical weapons. Since then, one of the chemical warfare incidents, at
Hoor-ul-Huzwaizeh, on 13 March 1984, has been conclusively verified. The
evidence uncovered by the investigators supports Iran's claims of chemical
warfare on at least six other occasions during the period from 17th February to
17th March.
The effectiveness of this UN verification operation has been attributed to the
Secretary General. His will had supposedly been strengthened by an announcement
by the International Committee of the Red cross (ICRC) that around a 160 cases
of wounded soldiers visited in Tehran hospitals by an ICRC team, "presented
a clinical picture whose nature leads to the presumption of the recent use of
substances prohibited by international law".
Not surprisingly, all the casualties interviewed were victims of a chemical
attack on the 27th of February. Two days earlier, the US State Department made a
statement announcing that "the US Government has concluded that the
available evidence indicates that Iraq has used lethal chemical weapons".
When pressed, the Iraqi government accused the report as "political
hypocrisy", "full of lies", a fairy tale by the CIA and had
implied that the patients examined by the ICRC had "political
hypocrisy", "full of lies", "sustained the effects of these
substances in places other than the war front".
Ironically, on the 17th of March, the very same day that the inspectors were
collecting their most damning evidence, an Iraqi general told the press:
"We have not used chemical weapons so far and I swear by God's Word I have
not seen any such weapons. But if I had to finish off the enemy, and if I am
allowed to use them, I will not hesitate to do so".
AFTERMATH
On the 30th of March, the UN officially released a statement
condemning the use of chemical weapons during the Gulf War. Luckily, none of the
five permanent members used their veto power to block the condemnation. On the
very same day, the US revealed plans institute special licensing requirements
for exports to Iraq and Iran of certain chemicals that could be used in the
manufacture of chemical weapons, and that it wanted other governments to follow
suit.
Since then, they resolved not to use these dastardly weapons of war in combat
has been considerably strengthened and gained much support from most countries.
Ever since this incident, reports of the use of chemical warfare by the Iraqis
have dwindled but have not been completely halted. In mid April the same year, a
British television crew came across evidence of a mustard gas attack but the
Iranian media no longer publicize such reports due to fear of retaliation by the
Iraqis.
SOUTH AFRICA'S CBW PROGRAM
In early 1998, Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission held a
series of hearings and public interrogations to expose the rampant abuse of
human rights during the Apartheid-era government.
Not only did the Commission expose the regime's wanton abuse of power, they also
looked into allegations that the Apartheid's Chemical and Biological Warfare
program was used to suppress the black majority and for political gain. The
government allegedly synthesized a sterility compound to control the population
of Blacks and used toxins for political assassination. They were also accused of
arming Zimbabwean troops with anthrax and cholera to be used against guerrilla
rebels who were trying to overthrow the White minority.
The program was headed by none other than Dr Wouter Basson, a former Brigadier
and personal heart specialist to the president. He headed the program, known as
Project Coast right through the 80s and early 90s and in that relatively short
time span, he was directly responsible for developing chemical and biological
weapons to target opposition leaders and their supporters.
The Apartheid propaganda machine then spread rumors about the program which
basically terrorized the black community into submission. The weapons employed
included an infertility toxin to control the birth rate and numerous poisons
that could be concealed in everyday products such as drinks and snacks as well
as skin absorbing chemicals that could be applied to the clothing of dissidents.
Not only did they use their arsenal of biological and chemical weapons against
specific targets, they also allegedly released cholera into water sources of
certain Black townships and used their weapons to aid the government troops of
Zimbabwe to crush the rebels who were desperately trying to topple the White
supremacists.
In 1979, the world's largest Anthrax outbreak took place in Zimbabwe resulting
in the death of 82 while thousands more fell ill. Hospitals were flooded and
emergency medical personnel had to be flown in. The Chemical and Biological
Warfare (CBW) program underwent radical changes following the appointment of F.W
de Klerk as president in the early 90s.
He appointed General Pierre Steyn to investigate the alleged abuses of power.
His report, which came to be known as the Steyn Report, exposed many of the
rampant abuses of human rights. This started a chain reaction in which numerous
scientists and researchers were fired and all documents pertaining to the CBW
program were shredded.
However, all of the information was stored digitally on CD-ROMs kept under tight
security. Basson was forced to retire and soon after became a consultant and
flew to many countries, one of which happened to be Libya. His frequent visits
alarmed the international community. Twice during de Klerk's presidency and once
during Mandela's, the United States and Britain made démarches to express their
concerns about the leaking of knowledge from the CBW program.
In an effort to control this rogue scientist, the government had no choice but
to rehire him in an effort to stop him from spreading his intimate knowledge of
biological and chemical warfare. In 1997 Basson was detained on charges of being
a drug pusher.
During the ensuing investigation, authorities found CBW documents, which should
have been long destroyed, stored in Basson's residence. He refused to seek
amnesty with the Truth and Reconcilliation Commission and delayed testifying
until July 1998.. People who worked for Basson, however, did testify and have
applied for amnesty and qualified for immunity from prosecution.
South Africa, which is now a member of the Biological and Toxin Weapons
Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention, still maintains a CBW program
but the government says that it is strictly defensive.
ANTHRAX LEAK AT SVERDLOVSK
On April 2, 1979, an unusual Anthrax outbreak affecting 94 people,
killing at least 64 of them, occurred in the Soviet city of Sverdlovsk, now
known as Ekaterinburg, about 8B50 miles east of Moscow. The first victim died
four days after the suspected outbreak occurred while the last one died one and
a half months later. The Soviet government denied any wrongdoing, blaming the
outbreak on contaminated meat, an excuse several influential American scientists
found plausible.
However, the Carter administration was not fooled that easily. American spies
had discovered the location of a suspected biological weapons facility located
in Sverdlovsk itself, and the Americans suspected that the Soviet Union was
violating the Biological Weapons Convention they had signed in 1972. The US made
their suspicions public but the Soviets denied any wrongdoing and tried to prove
their contaminated meat story at numerous international conferences.
Meanwhile, the Russian arsenal of offensive biological weapons continued to grow
and it was not until thirteen years later, in 1992 that the Russian president,
Boris Yeltsin, conceded that the facility was indeed the source of the outbreak.
Russia, in an unprecedented move, even allowed a team of Western scientists to
go to Sverdlovsk to carry out an intensive investigation.
Despite the KGB's best efforts to destroy all evidence by confiscating hospital
and other records after the incident, the wily scientists were able to track the
location of the victims on that fateful day. After much investigation, a pattern
began to emerge. The results clearly showed that most of the victims were
located along a straight line downwind from the facility.
Moreover, livestock in the area also died from Anthrax and the team was able to
conclude, without a shadow of a doubt, that the outbreak was caused by a release
of an aerosol of anthrax pathogen at the military facility. Unfortunately, they
were unable to determine what caused the release or what specific activities
might have occurred at the facility.
According to Dr Kanatian Alibekov, the former first deputy of Biopreparat, the
civilian arm of the Soviet biological weapons program, the leak was caused by
workers at the facility who neglected to replace a filter in a crucial exhaust
pipe.
Their error was realized soon after but by then, some spores had already
escaped. Had the wind been blowing towards the city center, the death toll would
definitely have been much higher. To this day, western inspectors are forbidden
from entering the facility and it remains to be seen if the Soviet Government
will come clean with this matter once and for all.
JAPAN
Unlike the other case studies littered throughout this website, this
particular case study on the land of the rising sun concentrates mainly on pre
1950 Japan. Unlike other countries, the modern Japan does not maintain an
offensive chemical and biological weapons (CBW) program even though, given the
level of technology and expertise it has in the field of eugenics and industrial
chemistry, it could easily do so.
In fact, the modern history of biological warfare started with the Japanese! In
1918, the Japanese started a special section called Unit 731, dedicated to
chemical and biological warfare (CBW). At that time, the maxim was,
"Science and Technology are the Key's to Winning War and BW is the most
cost effective." Indeed, even today, some 80 years later, this saying has
proven true.
In 1931, Japan aggressively sought to expand its territory by laying siege to
Manchuria, located in mainland China and Unit 731 coolly moved in to secure an
almost endless supply of human guinea pigs. Sure beats using lab rats.
Basically, if you were unfortunate enough to be a prisoner of war, you qualified
to join the ranks of those tortured by the Japanese scientists as they sought to
understand the underlying mechanisms behind both chemical and biological agents.
Following that, Japanese air machines sprayed bubonic plague over parts of China
in 1941, spreading terror into the hearts and minds of the rural populace. At
least five separate instances were documented and as terrifying the prospect of
bacterial bombs were at the time, these attacks were deemed ineffective. By now,
the US became aware of the Japanese's efforts and they decided to start their
own program. The Japanese also experimented on American POWs and the US
apparently were informed of the testing but did nothing.
Before their surrender, Japanese forces released thousands of plague infested
rats and upon submitting defeat to the Americans, the American Military offered
immunity to members of Unit 731 (both the scientists and military personnel) in
exchange for information garnered from those experiments. Therefore, in a way,
the American CBW program is soaked in the blood of Americans sent into a strange
land and betrayed by their country.
The end of the second world war ushered in a new era of global politics, where
the real battles were conducted neither in trenches nor on the battlefields of
the Rhine but in secret weapons labs and war rooms. The cold war had begun and
biological warfare was poised to become an integral part of this freezing
malice.
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