The United States said Tuesday it believed the Soviet Union and other nations had active germ warfare programs in violation of an international treaty banning biological weapons.
Nonetheless, the United States made clear it would oppose any early attempt to introduce verification measures into the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, which would seek to monitor compliance with the pact."The convention is not effectively verifiable, and we do not know any way to make it so," Ronald Lehman, director of the U.S. government's Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, told a U.N. Conference called to review the treaty.
Diplomats said that despite efforts in public speeches to paper over differences, the United States was plainly at odds with some of its Western partners and others among the 118 states that have joined the treaty, which came into effect in 1975.
The diplomats said nations such as Sweden and Germany want a verification protocol added, though they recognize that U.S. opposition will probably block that for now.
"Although we appreciate the difficulty involved in establishing an effective verification regime, this should be no excuse for inactivity," German delegation chief Adolf Ritter von Wagner told the conference, held every five years.
"The convention should not be exempt from the rule that treaties on disarmament and arms control must be verifiable."
Lehman said the United States insisted that those countries not in compliance with the convention "get their house in order and take the steps necessary toward full compliance."
"We believe the Soviet Union and other states have extensive active biological weapons programs in violation of the BW (Biological Weapons) Convention," he said.
He also said that despite the discovery by U.N. inspectors of a biological weapons program in Iraq, "no one really knows how much BW Iraq has produced or what it may be hiding in order to continue to pursue this deadly trail."
The convention, however, has no enforcement mechanisms, and all Lehman was able to call for besides compliance was disapproval by the conference.