UN chief warns of deadly germs as potential bio-terrorist weapons
UNITED NATIONS, (IPS) - The coronavirus—which has claimed the lives of more than 538,000 people and infected more than 11.6 million worldwide—has destabilised virtually every facet of human life ever since its outbreak in late December.
Providing a grim economic scenario of the devastation caused by the pandemic -- including rising poverty, hunger and unemployment -- UN SecretaryGeneral Antonio Guterres warned last week of the possibility of an even worse disaster: the risks of bioterrorist attacks deploying deadly germs.
He said it has already shown some of the ways in which preparedness might fall short, “if a disease were to be deliberately manipulated to be more virulent, or intentionally released in multiple places at once”.
“So, as we consider how to improve our response to future disease threats, we should also devote serious attention to preventing the deliberate use of diseases as weapons,” he declared, speaking at a Security Council meeting on the maintenance of international peace and security— and the implications of COVID-19.
Guterres pointed out that the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), which codifies “a strong and longstanding norm against the abhorrent use of disease as a weapon”, has 183 States Parties.
“I urge the 14 States that have not yet joined the Convention to do so without any further delay,” he urged.
Opened for signature on April 10, 1972, the BWC entered into force on March 26, 1975, and currently has183 states-parties.
Of the 14 countries outside the Convention, 10 have neither signed nor ratified the BWC. They include Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Israel, Kiribati, Micronesia, Namibia, South Sudan and Tuvalu, while four countries, Egypt, Haiti, Somalia and Syria, have signed but not ratified it. The ratifications usually take place in national parliaments.
John Loretz, a former Programme Director and a senior consultant with International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) told IPS: “I think the Secretary- General is absolutely correct in both assessments -- that the BWC is a strong treaty with widespread support, which needs to be strengthened, and that building up our public health institutions and pandemic response infrastructure would ensure that essential resources are in place should we ever have to deal with a biological weapons attack”.
That said, one of the obstacles to getting effective oversight and verification into the BWC -perhaps the biggest obstacle -- has been lobbying by the biomedical and pharmaceutical industries and their allies, who have argued that it’s difficult to determine intent when assessing whether someone is using a toxin for legitimate reasons (e.g., vaccine development) or for prohibited reasons (i.e., weapons), and that intrusive inspections would compromise trade secrets and intellectual property rights.
Loretz said those who want to strengthen the BWC will have to find a way past industry stonewalling to give the treaty compliance tools such as those incorporated into the Nuclear NonProliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
Jez Littlewood, a freelance researcher with expertise in biological weapons, arms control, and national security issues, told IPS the use of a biological weapon would be an act involving the deliberate use of disease.
“We know from consistent data about disease and its impacts worldwide that it can have potential devastating consequences”.
The outbreak of Ebola in West Africa in 2014, the influenza pandemic of 1919 and the diseases brought by European explorers and settlers to the Americas from the 15th century onwards all had significant implications for populations, he noted, adding that 2017 data makes this clear: https:// ourworldindata.org/causes- ofdeath Tracing its history, Littlewood said bioterrorism certainly exists, but in the 25 years since Aum Shinrikyo launched its chemical weapons attack on the Tokyo subway system, bioterrorism has been low level and relatively unsophisticated.
Terrorists have killed far more people with vehicles, knives and basic firearms than they ever have with disease causing organisms, said Littlewood, who served under secondment to the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office; and worked at the United Nations in Geneva. (Thalif Deen is a former Director,
Foreign Military Markets at Defence Marketing Services; Senior Defence Analyst at Forecast International; and military editor Middle East/Africa at Jane’s Information Group. He can be reached at thalilfdeen@aol.com)