LONDON, July 10 (RIA Novosti), Mark Hirst – The revelation that the UK Government failed to stop the supply of sarin gas to Syria highlights the need for “effective implementation” of the Chemical Weapons Convention, a leading campaigner on arms control has told RIA Novosti.
Rasha Abdul-Rahim of Amnesty International said all governments have a responsibility to stop the transfer of products and parts that could later be used in the manufacture chemical weapons.
"Reports that the UK government failed to stop British companies from supplying three key chemicals used in the production of sarin gas to Syria only serve to underscore the need for the effective implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention,” Abdul-Rahim told RIA Novosti.
“This prohibits the production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons and their precursors, as well as the strict regulation of the transfer of conventional weapons,” Abdul-Rahim added.
Despite earlier refusing to comment on claims Britain supplied the Syrian Government with sarin, Foreign Secretary William Hague was later forced to issue a written statement to MPs confirming the UK had provided chemical exports that were later used in the Syrian’s nerve agent program.
A UN inspection team sent to Syria in 2013 was unable to obtain compelling evidence to show who was behind the alleged gassing of civilians in Ghouta, Syria.
“All governments have a responsibility to stop the transfer of arms, ammunition, parts, components and chemicals that could be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law,” Abdul-Rahim told RIA Novosti.
“Such transfers may have consequences many years later as weapons and other materials or chemicals used to commit serious human rights violations can often remain functional decades after they were originally supplied," Abdul-Rahim added.
In May RIA Novosti revealed how official British Government papers hidden in the UK National Archive detailed the extent of Winston Churchill’s role in authorizing the deliberate gassing of civilians during the 1920 Arab uprising, in Mesopotamia, now modern day Syria and Iraq.
Churchill, later to become British Prime Minister during World War 2, was Secretary for War at the time and wrote, “I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. I am strongly in favor of using poisoned gas against uncivilized tribes.”
Respect MP George Galloway told RIA Novosti, “It certainly indicates that Britain’s foreign policy hasn’t changed too much in almost a century and that we are still treating the Arabs and the Kurds in much the same way as we did then.”
