The CBW Protection Symposium: 18 years in the service for peace
A revue of the past, today and the future
Kurt Persson
Based on a draft by Johan Santesson 1998

          This seventh symposium on protection against chemical and biological warfare agents in Stockholm 15-19 June 2001 will, together with the six previous symposia, illuminate how the interests in the different fields of CBW protection have varied during the last two decades. The years since the first symposium in 1983 have been years with dramatic political developments, including the Iraqi large-scale use of chemical weapons against Iran, the breakdown of the Soviet Union and the disintegration of the Warsaw Pact (WP), and the coming into force of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Naturally, all of these events have been reflected at the symposia.

Full Article

UNMOVIC: An Update
Ake Bovallius and Ewen Buchanan

          UNMOVIC, set up by the UN Security Council in late 1999 to take over the work of the defunct UNSCOM in cleaning up Iraq's WMD, has yet to set foot there. It should have been let into Iraq a year ago. So what has the inspectorate been doing in the meantime?
           Those staff engaged to date (some 45 professionals) have been occupied with a variety of preparatory tasks. One task, the most demanding in terms of staff resources, is the analysis of available documents and material in order to identify "unresolved disarmament issues."

Full Article

JOHAN SANTESSON 1944-2001

           Johan Santesson, our friend and colleague, died on 11 May in his home in the Hague. Johan was one of the most well known and respected persons among those who devote their lives to eliminating or reducing the chemical weapons in the world. He was always full of ideas and energy in his efforts to reach that goal.
          The International Symposium on Protection against Chemical (and later including Biological) Warfare Agents was his idea and initiative. This series of symposia was started during the cold war and for Johan that was a challenge. Johan had always advocated for open dialogue and the Symposium was intended to be an important meeting point in that respect. He succeeded in gathering scientific and technical specialists from all over the world to present and discuss chemical protection issues (which at that time was a topic surrounded by much national secrecy in most countries. He was successful in this task, as he was in so many others.

Full Article

Making Biological Terrorism an International Crime
Professor Barry Kellman
Depaul University College of Law

           Biological terrorism (B-T) is not an international crime. The BWC prohibits States from possessing or using BW. States must criminalize private BW activity, but whether they've done so is remarkably unclear. The implications of this legal gap are crucial to preventing a catastrophic B T event.
           To be clear: an actual released of a BW device, causing death and disease, would be a crime, and law enforcement officials could pursue the matter. The problem here is that the effects of such use are too cataclysmic to delay employing law enforcement until the deed is done. A more effective criminal law enforcement effort against B-T should focus on preparation and planning activities, not only on the actual commission of an attack. But gaps in relevant international law -- notably, no primary prohibition against possession of pathogens nor critical weaponization equipment -- marginalizes law enforcement capabilities, at least until those capabilities explode into catastrophe.

Full Article