BULGARIA`S TOUGH LINE ON BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS

Views on BG | October 10, 2001, Wednesday // 00:00

The Guardian
BY DR SOLOMON PASSY*

I was most interested to read Jeremy Rifkin`s article (Now for GM weapons, September 27). I fully share the concern about another, even more deadly threat than that of hijacked airplanes used as missiles. And it is, indeed, `the poor man`s nuclear bomb`, the biological weapon. I was rather disturbed, though, to find in the article a reference to my country, Bulgaria, among a total of 17 states, for alleged research and stockpiling of germ warfare agents as reported in a 1995 CIA study. First of all, Bulgaria is a party to all international instruments related to the prohibition of chemical and biological weapons. Moreover, we have been actively involved in with the special working group which is drafting the verification protocol to the convention on the prohibition of the development, production and stockpiling of biological and toxin weapons. The most eloquent proof that my country is totally alien to the very notion of any research or stockpiling of such weaponry came last October 1, in Paris. On that day Bulgaria was admitted as a full member of the Australian Group - an elite club of 33 countries that, among others, includes all Nato, EU and G7 states, whose main goal is to limit and prevent the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons through effective export control and verification. Before becoming a member, Bulgaria had undergone a series of checks and verifications by UN and US experts, and their conclusions were the grounds on which Bulgaria became a fellow-member of the Australian Group. I fully agree with Mr Rifkin: it is time to get tough and do the right thing about chemical and biological weapons. And Bulgaria has been doing so for a long time. Dr Solomon Passy Minister of foreign affairs, Republic of Bulgaria. With the second case of anthrax now appearing in America (FBI investigates anthrax outbreak, October 9), I begin to wonder if President Bush regrets having turned his back on the biological weapons convention, or if he is concerned that the United States is home to 40% of the world`s biotech and pharmaceutical companies. This is just another prime example of American hypocrisy and self-interest, such as their attempt to kill off the Kyoto protocol, and walking out of the United Nations` small arms convention. If you peddle tools of mass destruction to the rest of the world for your own political and financial benefit, you should expect the kind of anti-Americanism that is clearly spread across the globe, but is stifled by bullying propaganda and political spin.

Solomon Passy is Bulgarian Foreign Minister since July 24, 2001

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