http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/10/09-8
Published on Wednesday, October 9, 2013 by Common Dreams
US Failing International Treaty as Chemical Weapons Stockpile Plagues Panama
As US maintains chemical weapons ultimatum over Syria, others point
to US stockpiles
- Jacob Chamberlain, staff writer
As the U.S. continues to hold the threat of war over the Syrian
government if it doesn't destroy its chemical weapons, a McClatchy
article published Wednesday highlights the hypocrisy of that
threat-the U.S. has left one of its own chemical weapons stockpiles
sitting on an island off the coast of Panama for over 60 years.
Following years of requests to the U.S. from Panama's government to
abide by international law and clean up the chemical weapons mess it
has left on the island of San Jose, as well as other parts of Panama,
the Obama administration told McClatchy that it intends to send a
team later this year to investigate the situation. But it remains to
be seen if the U.S. will actually sign on to a proposed agreement
that would tie them to that promise.
As McClatchy reports:
In May, Panama formally requested - through the Organization for the
Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the international body based in The
Hague, Netherlands, whose inspectors now are overseeing the
destruction of Syria's arsenal - that the United States remove eight
chemical bombs found there in a 2002 survey.
The Obama administration declined to say whether the outlines of an
agreement have been reached.
"We carried out a concerted effort to have these training sites
cleaned up," recalled Jose Miguel Aleman, who was the foreign
minister of Panama from 1999 to 2003-efforts that have thus far
failed.
Ramon A. Morales, who served for five years as Panama's ambassador to
the United Nations until 2004, said that buried U.S. weapons remained
a serious problem throughout the country, not just San Jose.
"Unofficially, it is known that there have been some 20 deaths by
people who have handled this [unexploded ordinance]," Morales said,
referring to chemical and other weapons that have been left around
the country during different eras of U.S. occupation.
"San Jose Island is a mini problem compared to the rest of the
country," he said. "It's very hard for a little country like Panama
to shake out the information from the world's most powerful country."
Meanwhile, the U.S. government continues to violate agreements of the
intentional Chemical Weapons Convention treaty in other ways, as it
continues to store well over 2,000 tons of chemical weapons within
U.S. borders as well, including facilities in Kentucky and Colorado.
Syria is believed to possess approximately 1,000 tons of chemical
weapons and has thus far met deadlines set by the U.S. and the U.N.
to disclose them.
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