Repulsive weaponry

The world's dirty little secret is becoming increasingly public. A growing number of countries have what a military analyst describes as "biological aspirations". This means they want to build up stockpiles of chemical weapons. But the proliferation of these obscene and vile vapors is, for the most part, veiled in secrecy.

It is news when a country acknowledges having them. Now, three months into a ban on the use or production of chemical weapons, India has become one of the first countries to admit having a stockpile of them.

Most observers will probably have mixed feelings about this revelation. India should be praised for being willing to admit that it has these noxious substances. But it should be condemned for having them in the first place.

How did it get them? Is India capable of producing its own chemical weapons? It has, after all, developed a sophisticated range of missiles. Or have Western firms been providing them, illegally or unknowingly?

The world periodically witnesses bouts of high-technology armament consumption. The rationale for this kind of thing is that our planet is a dangerous jungle and governments must defend themselves.

But a developed nation which produces its own armament can only finance the hugely costly industrial base needed to research, develop and produce modern weapons if it goes in for long production runs and exports the surplus.

The signing, three months ago, of a treaty outlawing chemical weapons was a welcome and overdue move. Biological warfare is not only morally repellent, it is a messy business. Civilians may be the main victims wherever it is used.

All war is dehumanizing, but the use of what the late British prime minister Winston Churchill called "this hellish poison" causes complete deprivation.

-- The Hong Kong Standard