Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons

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The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is an international agency, located in The Hague, The Netherlands. Its mission is to promote membership of the Chemical Weapons Convention treaty and to check, by inspections, that members are adhering to the provisions of the convention. It was established in 1997. In August 2005 one hundred and seventy states had ratified or acceded to the convention. The OPCW is sometimes mistaken for a UN organisation, but the OPCW makes it clear that it was established on the basis of the Chemical Weapons Convention, a convention that has no direct relationship with the United Nations. Of course both organisations cooperate with each other.

On 21 March 2002, the former OPCW Director-General José Maria Bustani was fired during a special session based on US-orchestrated charges of "mismanagement". The illegality of the procedure led by US representative Mr. John Bolton has been ruled by a judgement of the UN International Labour Organization (ILO) Tribunal. The true reason behind the US initiative was Mr. Bustani having contacts with Iraq leaders in order to make them join the CW convention. The subsequent OPCW inspections into Iraq would have removed the main excuse used by the US President Bush as the reason of the Iraq invasion, i.e. the accusation of Iraq having chemical weapons of mass destruction.

The controversies surrounding the departure of Mr. Bustani are thus viewed in some quarters as an acute example of the erosion of the UN's independence and capacity to base its actions on objective analysis, in the face of US foreign policy imperialism. Others would interpret these controversies simply as evidence of UN adjustment to the developing realities on the international scene, whereby the US interests gain the geater hearing which they deserve.

In 2005, spokesman Peter Kaiser was publicly quoted questioning whether the use of white phosphorus in battle was legal under the Chemical Weapons Convention. He stated that if it had been used offensively against personnel in a manner that exploited the toxic or caustic properties of phosphorus, it would be forbidden.

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