Nobel Peace Prize goes to chemical watchdog
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Efforts to eliminate chemical weapons won a Nobel Peace Prize yesterday for the global watchdog trying to destroy Syria’s stockpiles of nerve gas and other poisonous agents.
By giving its prestigious prize to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the Norwegian Nobel Committee turned the spotlight both on Syria’s civil war and on a type of weapon that has horrified nations since World War I.
The OPCW was formed in 1997 to enforce the Chemical Weapons Convention, the first international treaty to outlaw an entire class of weapons. It has largely worked out of the limelight until this year, when the UN called upon its expertise to investigate alleged chemical weapons attacks in Syria.
“The conventions and the work of the OPCW have defined the use of chemical weapons as a taboo under international law,” the Nobel Committee said. “Recent events in Syria, where chemical weapons have again been put to use, have underlined the need to enhance the efforts to do away with such weapons.”
OPCW inspectors are already on a risky UN-backed disarmament mission based in Damascus to verify and destroy the government’s arsenal of poison gas and nerve agents.
“Events in Syria have been a tragic reminder that there remains much work still to be done,” OPCW Director-General Ahmet Uzumcu said. “Our hearts go out to the Syrian people who were recently victims of the horror of chemical weapons.”
“I truly hope that this award and the OPCW’s ongoing mission together with the United Nations in Syria will help efforts to achieve peace in that country and end the suffering of its people,” he said.
He said the US$1.2 million prize money would be used “for the goals of the convention” — to eliminate chemical weapons.
The first OPCW inspection team arrived in Syria last week, followed by another this week.
The United Nations praised the Nobel decision. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted the recognition came nearly 100 years after chemical weapons were used in World War I.
“Like the United Nations, the mission of the OPCW was born from a fundamental abhorrence at the atrocities of war,” he said. “Together, we must ensure that the fog of war will never again be composed of poison gas.”
The OPCW says that 57,740 tons, or 81.1 percent, of the world’s declared stockpile of chemical agents have been destroyed.
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