The Organisation or the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) that has been in operation for a number of decades now understands the unconventional nature of a war where chemical weapons is used.
Ralf Trapp, an official at OPCW and a former advisor and negotiator for the Chemical Weapons Convention, from his years of experience, reveals, “You can calculate how many people who are breathing in the atmosphere are likely to die. Chemical weapons, when used close to populated areas, will kill large numbers of civilians — including women and children — simply because you can protect an army against the effects of chemical weapons fairly well. You cannot really protect a civilian population.”
It is for this reason almost 189 countries have decided to destroy every last stockpile of chemical weapons in signing up for the Chemical Weapons Convention.
While Russia and the United States still continue to have some of these stockpiles around, but under the watchful eyes of the OPCW, other countries, even India, have destroyed all their stockpiles.
Jeff Osborne,a former inspector of the OPCW, reveals that a thimbleful of these chemical weapons could kill thousands of people at one go. However, with these chemicals loaded with weapons, the effect, when used, can be very devastating.
His routine is to not only check bunkers filled with thousands of chemical weapons but also in chemical production plants that can be converted to building these weapons, especially if the country in question has a developed chemical industry.
But there are countries that have not ratified this treaty – some of them include Syria and Egypt who, will not, until Israel ratifies the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Just another stalemate in a region which claims a number of other stalemates to its name…
On the other hand, North Korea did not bother to respond to OPCW to discuss this issue while South Sudan and Angola, who haven’t signed this treaty, show no evidence of having one of these lethal stockpiles either.