Current events: MOURAD MEDELCI OPENS WORKSHOP ON PROHIBITION OF
CHEMICAL WEAPONS"Algeria
took measures to
avoid all the risks" Conscious of the danger of the
use of the
chemical weapons, in particular by terrorist groups, the
Algerian government took measures to confront this risk. It is indeed
what affirmed, yesterday, the Foreign Minister on the periphery of the
opening of a workshop devoted to Convention on the prohibition of the
chemical weapons (Ciac). "the question of chemical
terrorism has
become, nowadays, a major concern of the international community. The
co-operation and the prevention, through interdependent and concerted
approaches, will be able to preserve us against any potential use of
these weapons by nonofficial actors. Algeria, as well as the majority
of the members of the international community, satifies its commitment
in accordance with the resolution 1540 of the Security Council. It
wishes that this resolution particularly engage the countries which
hold weapons of massive destruction which are withdrawn from
international control ", declared, yesterday, Mourad Medelci in his
opening speech of this workshop which was held in the Djenane-El-Mithak
Residence. "Algeria took measures to confront all the risks",
nevertheless underlined the Foreign Minister on the periphery of this
meeting. He specified that the follow-up of this file also proceeded
within the framework of the African Union through the African research
and study Center on terrorism, whose headquarters is in Algiers. Let
us note that the organization of this workshop marks the celebration of
the 10th birthday of the coming into effect of the Convention for the
prohibition of the chemical weapons (Ciac). Ratified by 178 States,
this convention came into effect in 1997. The countries on standby of
ratification are eight: the Bahamas, the Comoros, Congo, the
Guinea-Bissau, Israel, Myanmar, the Central African Republic and the
Dominican Republic. Eight other States refuse until now to sign this
document: Angola, Barbados, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Somalia and
North Korea. The application of Ciac however is considered to be very
positive since the totality of the declared installations of production
of chemical weapons were put out of service by the Organization for the
prohibition of the chemical weapons (OIAC). These installations all are
subjected to a mode of very strict checking. Since 1997, the OIAC
carried out more than 2500 inspections in nearly 200 sites related to
the production of chemical weapons. 700 other factory sites were also
controlled during this decade. by: Tarek Hafid