Wednesday, Apr 23, 2003
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By B. Muralidhar Reddy
The reporter had got the news all right, except that the inspectors are not from the U.N. They are from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and would be in Pakistan on April 29 as it is a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention. As the television channels and news agencies began flashing the news and inviting experts to talk about the implications, the Foreign Ministry went on an overdrive to counter it. With Iraq still green in the minds of every one, the Ministry deemed it necessary to issue an elaborate press note on the subject. The crux of the note was that it was a "routine" inspection and that the OPCW has conducted nearly 1,400 such inspections in various countries that are part of CWC. The Information and Media Development Minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, claimed that the inspectors would also visit India. The Foreign Office said over 150 countries, by virtue of their membership of the CWC, had agreed to allow verification of their chemical industry. "Contrary to the impression conveyed by certain news stories, this was not a chemical weapon inspection as Pakistan was not a chemical weapon state. The visit to the fertiliser plant in Karachi will last only a day. These stories reflect a complete lack of understanding about the Convention. The Chemical Weapons Convention contains a confidence-building regime under which a defined category of industrial units in all member states are visited by officials of the OPCW based in The Hague. Nearly 1,400 such inspections of industrial units have been carried out in various countries of the world. This was the first visit of its kind in Pakistan'', it said. Pakistan fully subscribed to the objectives and purposes of the Convention, it said. "The Convention has enabled the international community to uncover India's clandestine chemical weapons programme which the OPCW has sealed and monitors its destruction. Pakistan applauds these major achievements of the CWC and will continue to work to strengthen it''. All the explanations do not answer the question why the inspectors should be visiting a fertiliser plant in the port city.
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