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News Release
16 November 2004
Sunshine Project launches studies on French and German biodefense activitiesFrench biodefense research clouded in secrecy; concern over French ‘non-lethal’ chemical weapons activities
(16 November 2004) Today, the Sunshine Project has released detailed studies of the national biodefense programs of France and Germany. The reports are the first in a series whose aim is to better document biodefense programs in many countries.
French secrecy: The country study on France concludes that the French government is not in compliance with its obligations under the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), as it has failed to provide comprehensive annual declarations to the United Nations on its biodefense program. The French government is very secretive about its BW-related activities. France has omitted major information from its official declarations and publications, and French officials did not respond to written questions about biodefense activities.
French military biodefense research is mainly conducted at two facilities, the Centre d'études du Bouchet (CEB) near Paris and the Centre de recherches du service de santé des armées (CRSSA) near Grenoble. In addition to standard features of a biodefense program, France is also working on so-called ‘threat assessment’ studies, which may involve the practical imitation of offensive capabilities to assess the possible capacities of an enemy. As this kind of research blurs the distinctions between defensive and offensive research, ‘threat assessment’ type projects are a major concern for international arms control. It was not possible, through open sources, to establish the concrete nature of France’s threat assessment projects.
Among the manifold projects pursued by the French biodefense program is the construction of mobile biological labs, the study of microencapsulation of microorganisms and the production of toxins by means of genetic engineering.
Non-lethal chemical weapons activities: A variety of evidence suggests that France is working in the area of so called ‘non-lethal’ chemical weapons and thus may be in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention. French military scientists have investigated a broad range of incapacitating agents – from tear gas to neurotoxins and psychoactive drugs – and a variety of delivery devices for ‘non-lethal’ chemical weapons have been developed, patented, and marketed by French companies in the past years. Earlier this year, a salesperson from the weaponsmaker Etienne Lacroix offered to sell us chemical payloads – including malodorants – for one of its weapons system.
In summary, the secretive and intransparent behaviour of the French government with regard to its biodefense programs and its non-lethal weapons activities may give rise to a broad range of suspicions. A radical move by the French government towards transparency and improved confidence building measures may counter similar suspicions in the future.
Germany has a well developed biodefense program located at two military research centers: the microbiological laboratory of the Sanitätsakademie der Bundeswehr (SanAk) in Munich and the Wehrwissenschaftliches Institut für Schutztechnologien (WIS) in Munster. While Germany is comparatively open about its military biodefense activities and submitted rather comprehensive declarations to the United Nations, it is still keeping secret its civilian contractors that are involved in military biodefense programs. There is no indication that the Federal Armed Forces perform so called ‘threat assessment’ type of research. One particular experiment with genetically engineered bacteria that raised concerns in the past was apparently stopped some two years ago after critical public discussions in Germany. No indication of research or development projects related to new types of so-called ‘non-lethal’ chemical weapons in Germany were identified.
The Sunshine Project country studies were initiated in early 2004 to increase transparency and to contribute to building confidence in the critical area of biological arms control. They are based on open sources, such as scientific publications, general media, or government publications. More country studies will follow, including reports on Turkey and the United States.
The Sunshine Project calls on all governments to strengthen the international ban on biological weapons, to restrict themselves in biodefense programs and to guarantee full transparency in all aspects of biodefense research. They should contribute to building confidence in this critical area of biological arms control by submitting future declarations to the United Nations that are complete, consistent and unambigious.
The country studies on France and Germany are available on our website at www.sunshine-project.org.