§ Baroness Cox asked Her Majesty's Government:
§ Whether they will consider requesting a challenge inspection in Sudan by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to investigate reports and evidence of the manufacture and use of chemical weapons by the National Islamic Front Government of Sudan. [HL4218]
81WA§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Scotland of Asthal)The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) bans signatory states from the development, production, storage and use of chemical weapons. The UK takes a leading role in implementing the treaty and takes all allegations of non-compliance seriously. We would only consider requesting the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to undertake a challenge inspection where this was warranted by the circumstances of an individual case.
Sudan acceded to the CWC on 24 May 1999 (entry into force being 23 June 1999). Following allegations of the use of Chemical Weapons (CW) in Lainya in southern Sudan in July 1999, 17 environmental samples obtained from the area by Mr Damien Lewis were analysed by DERA, Porton Down for the most likely CW agents and their breakdown products. Although traces of the explosive TNT and its breakdown products were present in eight of the samples, no evidence was found of the CW agents tested for. Low levels of arsenic were measured in 15 of the samples at concentrations well within the expected natural limits for environmental samples. We understand that samples from the same site analysed in both Finland and the United States confirmed the UK analyses. The UK therefore concluded that there was no evidence to substantiate the allegations that chemical weapons were used in Sudan. The UK has informed the OPCW and the Sudanese Government of these findings.