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Joint Press
Release from:
Acción Andina (Bogotá)
Sunshine Project (US/Germany)
Transnational Institute (Amsterdam)
13 November 2000
United Nations Pulls Out of Plans to Use Anti-Drug Biological Weapons in South America
NGOs Caution that Dangers Remain in Asia, Colombia, and the US and Call for the UN Drugs Commission and Biological Weapons Convention to Impose a Ban.
13 November - The United Nations has pulled back from proposals to develop and use biological agents to eradicate illicit coca and opium poppy crops in the Andes. Several nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) welcome the change as a positive step; but caution that anti-drug biological weapons programs are still active in Asia and the United States, while proposals exist to start such research in Colombia. The NGOs say that the UN decision to pull out in South America should be the first step toward a global ban on biological agents to eradicate illicit Ð or any Ð crops.
Clear Statement: The new position of the United Nations Drug Control Program (UNDCP) unequivocally states “UNDCP is neither implementing, or planning to implement, or discussing the possibility of implementing a biocontrol project in Colombia or anywhere else in the Andes.” UNDCP, with the sole financial support of the US and UK, has embarked on a global program to develop biological agents to kill illicit crops. The program has been harshly criticized as dangerous and highly inappropriate for a UN agency by Andean governments, indigenous peoples, scientists, and drug policy, environment, and biological weapons specialists. UNDCP’s change of position is a significant policy reversal confirmed in a letter sent to NGOs on November 2nd by a senior official on behalf of UNDCP Director Pino Arlacchi.
US Misstatements: The non-profits warn that US officials continue to make confusing statements claiming that UNDCP is participating in its plans to use biological weapons in the Andes. The US State Department’s Andean policy chief Phillip Chicola told Bogotá’s El Tiempo on October 20th that UNDCP would conduct research in Colombia on strains of the coca-killing fungus Fusarium oxysporum and other biological agents, despite adamant denials from both Colombia and UNDCP. Last week, a US government official told NGOs that UNDCP is negotiating on its behalf in Colombia. UNDCP says this is false.
Edward Hammond of the Sunshine Project argues that the US position reflects deep cynicism about international governance and biological weapons proliferation. According to Hammond “If the US used these agents alone, it would be an outright illegal act of war. UNDCP’s work on biological weapons is mostly a frightening story of cynical attempts by the US to hijack a UN agency. The US strategy is for UNDCP’s involvement to chip away at the sovereignty of target countries and their neighbors, and to reduce US exposure to allegations of biological warfare. Thanks to opposition by civil society, a slumbering UN is waking up to the abuse; but smug US officials still step beyond their bounds, talking about UNDCP policy as if Kofi Annan headed an inconsequential section of the State Department.”
Other Research Continues: NGOs warn that UNDCP’s withdrawal only applies in the Andean region and that important steps remain to be taken to ensure that biological weapons will not be used anywhere in the war on drugs. Several imminent dangers need to be addressed urgently:
Asia: UNDCP continues to support biological eradication in Asia, with a poppy-killing fungus research project in Uzbekistan. According to Martin Jelsma of the Transnational Institute (TNI), “This US-UK jointly funded project has been running since 1998 without any independent monitoring and may soon have fungi ready to use in opium poppy eradication. UNDCP may have backed out on clear terms from the Fusarium project in Colombia; but it has done so without even questioning its role in the Uzbekistan project. UNDCP defends its mandate to collaborate in developing ‘safer eradication agents’ using a misleading discourse on environmental protection and blinded by the illusion that total eradication of poppy and coca from the planet is possible in a decade. UNDCP has failed to explain why a UN agency is involved in forced eradication at all, a strategy vehemently opposed by many of its member states.”
Colombia: Under US pressure, the Colombian Environment Ministry has prepared a proposal to research biological agents to eradicate coca. Colombian Senator Rafael Orduz, a leading opponent, says “Despite the Colombian government’s repeated affirmation that it rejects the use of Fusarium oxysporum for the eradication of crops, the Environment Ministry persists in leaving the door open to research on native biological agents. The Environment Ministry’s ambiguous position legitimizes the possibility of biological warfare under the cover of research and scientific development, with unpredictable consequences for the region. The position also is a part of forced eradication strategies for illicit crops that have been unsuccessful in the past and which, under Plan Colombia, cause the worsening of the armed conflict’s consequences for civilians, including forced displacement of people.”
"One of the core themes of the peace discussions in Colombia is illicit crops and their alternatives.” says Ricardo Vargas of Acción Andina, “The continuing threat to use biological agents to eradicate coca and poppy undermines confidence between parties in the peace process. These biological weapons are perceived as another arm for use against insurgents. They generate mistrust between the state and coca and poppy growing farm communities looking for cooperative solutions. Communities see biological agents as another pernicious technique in the war against drugs, on top of chemical sprays, which have failed their purpose of eradicating illicit crops.”
United States: Biological weapons research is also being conducted in the US on agents to kill coca, opium poppy, and marijuana. US government scientists in Beltsville, Maryland remain fully engaged and are currently testing agents to eradicate opium poppy. The US could also suffer from policy amnesia and reverse its commitment to only fund international testing and use of biological eradication through a multilateral mechanism. Says Susana Pimiento, a Colombian attorney with the Sunshine Project “These dangerous programs, falsely labeled ‘biological control research’, threaten the reputation of legitimate biocontrol science and, most importantly, loosen international prohibitions on biological weapons. UNDCP’s South American pullout is step one. The announcement must be the prelude to a global ban on development and use of biological weapons to eradicate illicit crops.”
An important concern is the status of US fiscal year 2000 appropriations to the US State Department for more biological weapons research. This money was to be allocated to UNDCP for work on biological eradication of coca; but UNDCP is backing away and the Organization of American States’ anti-drug office says it “never planned or even considered” biological weapons as an option. Says Hammond, “The State Department’s narcotics unit must turn its biowarfare bank account to peaceful purposes.”
Building a
Global Ban: Critical steps in creating a global ban on the use of biological
weapons in the drug war will be work by civil society at upcoming meetings
of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs and the Biological and Toxic Weapons
Convention. At these meetings, NGOs will seek the dismantling of existing
research programs and a ban on any future work on biological weapons to eradicate
illicit crops. NGOs will ask the Commission on Narcotic Drugs and UNDCP donor
countries to stop all UNDCP work on biological agents in illicit crop eradication.
The Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention will be asked to consider the
issue of biological eradication for its upcoming Review Conference in 2001,
with the objective of clarifying and asserting that Convention’s ban
on hostile use of anti-crop biological agents.
Contacts:
Edward Hammond, Sunshine Project, Austin, TX (US), +1 512 707-6894, hammond@sunshine-project.org
Martin Jelsma, Transnational Institute, Amsterdam, +31 20 6626608, mjelsma@tni.org
Susana Pimiento, Sunshine Project, Austin, TX (US), +1 512 707-6894, spimiento@sunshine-project.org
Ricardo Vargas, Acción Andina, Bogotá, rivarme@colomsat.net.co
The Sunshine Project is an international non-profit dedicated to biological weapons issues with offices in Hamburg, Germany and Austin (Texas), USA. For more information: http://www.sunshine-project.org
The Transnational Institute (TNI) and Acción Andina work jointly in the Drugs and Democracy Program, a collaboration of researchers specialized in drugs and the impact of policies to combat them. The Program analyzes the obstacles that drug trafficking and anti-drug policy create for the democratization and demilitarization of Latin America. For more information: http://www.tni.org/drugs