Display of Soviet chemical weapons

Press, 6 October 1987, Page 10

Display of Soviet chemical weapons

NZPA-AFP- Shikhany

Soviet military authorities have for the first time displayed a wide selection of chemical weapons to an international delegation.

They also demonstrated the destruction of a lethal chemical agent, in a move aimed at speeding up treaty negotiations. Western diplomats among the 110-member delegation welcomed the unprecedented invitation as a “first step” by the Soviet Union towards ending the secrecy which had until this year shrouded Moscow’s chemical arsenal, estimated at 510,000 to 612,000 tonnes. Some Western military delegation members questioned Soviet claims that all types of Moscow’s chemical weaponry had been shown.

The weapons were displayed on Saturday at Shikhany, the Soviet Union’s largest chemical warfare installation situated on the river Volga, about 900 km south-east of Moscow.

The delegation, including negotiators and ex- ■ ports from the 40 countries involved in negotiating the Geneva treaty to ban chemical arms and destroy stockpiles, was shown 19 types of Soviet chemical projectiles. They were the first foreigners to visit the installation built in the 19205.

General Anatoly Kuntsevich, a Defence Ministry official involved in the Geneva talks, told a press briefing that all types of Russia’s chemical weapons, both old and new, had been displayed.

General Kuntsevich adjnitted that a “spray tank” or large chemical bomb in the exhibition at an apparently specially constructed demonstration site dated from the 19505. “Welcome to the archaeological museum,” one western military expert quipped when con-

fronted with the line of projectiles ranging from tactical missile warheads to hand grenades.

In response to a question about toxic agents which had possibly been omitted from the display, General _ Kuntsevich stressed that Soviet agents such as mustard gas had been developed Jin response to Western weapons. “And we do not have any other types,” he said. The Western experts said at least three agents were missing from the Soviet display of nerve gases and skin-blistering agents — the blood-poi-soning agent cyanide, phosgene, and VRSS.

One said that if ; the agents detailed in Saturday’s demonstration comprised all existing types it meant the Russians had made no advances in toxicity research in 30 years.

General Kuntsevich revealed that Moscow had destroyed its cyanide weapons, without informing the outside world.

These munitions were .developed in the 1920 s and 30s and had long been obsolete, he said. “We did not announce it, but you can be assured that they were destroyed.”

The Australian Ambassador to the Geneva negotiations, Richard Butler, told reporters that the Soviet Union had largely decided to eliminate its chemical weaponry because its arsenal was becoming obsolete. Asked why Moscow had suddenly decided this year to stop manufacturing chemical arms, General Kuntsevich said that at the Geneva talks his country began ’ getting complaints that it was hiding something, and that secrecy was interfering with reaching an accord. “We decided to invite you to show we have nothing to, hide,” he said.