Chemical weaponsMost of Libya’s chemical weapons destroyed
When Libya joined the Chemical Weapons Convention in December 2003, it reported to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) that it was operating three chemical-weapons production facilities, and that it had produced a total of twenty-five tons of sulfur mustard gas, 3,563 bombs with warfare agents, and 1,390 tons of precursor materials. Over the next eight years, these chemical weapons stock were systematically destroyed under international supervision. The work was halted between February and November 2011 – the beginning of the rebellion against Qaddafi and his departure from power – and resumed in early 2012. OPCW announced than on 26 January 2014, work on destroying Libya’s mustard gas has been completed. The question is whether the Qaddafi regime was truthful in its 2003 declaration – or whether there are still stocks of chemical agents stashed somewhere in desert caches.
Libya is a member of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which prohibits the production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons. In 2011 and 2012 investigators found 517 artillery shells, eight 250-kilogram bombs, and forty-five rocket launching sleeves loaded with sulfur mustard gas. The munitions were found in caches in the Libyan desert.
Mustard gas is a powerful irritant and blistering agent which, on contact, damages the skin, eyes, and lungs.
Former Libyan leader Col. Moammar Qaddafii joined the CWC to avoid international ostracism and help lift economic sanctions which hobbled the Libya economy. DW reports that before Libya joined the CWC, it had produced chemical weapons in three plants. When Libya became a member to the treaty, it declared a total of twenty-five tons of sulfur mustard gas, 3,563 bombs with warfare agents, and 1,390 tons of precursor materials in documents submitted, as required, to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
Libya was on its way to meeting its obligations under the CWC treaty to destroy chemical weapons and pre-products, but then, in February 2011, the rebellion against Qaddafi’s regime began, and the process of destroying the country’s chemical weapons was halted.
Qaddafi was driven from power and killed in November 2011, and after his fall the German government contributed €5 million to the effort of resuming weapon destruction. The weapons in the desert needed to be destroyed before falling into the wrong hands, but existing facilities could not be used to destroy the weapons as the munitions were already filled with poison.
“It then took the best part of a year to install a different kind of destruction facility that could get rid of these munitions that were loaded with sulphur mustard and which also were in very poor condition, leaky and very dangerous and toxic,” OPCW spokesman Michael Luhan told Deutsche Welle.
The United States and Germany financed a new facility and training of Libyan personnel to destroy the chemical weapons. The facility was delivered by Dynasafe International, a Swedish-German joint venture. DW reports that the facility consisted of a gas-tight combustion furnace in which ammunition is detonated. Gases and munitions fragments are purified after incineration, destroying 99 percent of all toxins. According to Dynasafe managers Holger Weigel and Thomas Stock, the biggest challenge was to construct a mobile facility within seven months. The 50-ton complex, installed in four cargo containers, can be assembled and taken apart quickly.
Libyans secretly destroyed mustard gas ammunitions for three months, until 26 January 2014. “The destruction of these munitions was a significant undertaking in laborious and technically challenging circumstances,” OPCW director general Ahmet Uyumcu announced nine days later.
Libya still has about 850 tons of chemical precursor materials or Category 2 chemicals. The chemicals are reported to be stored safely on a military base and monitored by cameras. “These are fairly routine industrial grade chemicals which can be used to make chemical warfare agents as well, and that’s why they have to be destroyed,” Luhan said. Libya aims to be chemical weapons-free by the end of 2016, assuming no other chemical weapons are discovered.
