Seminar on chemical weapons

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas is scheduled to open an Asia-Pacific seminar on the prohibition of chemical weapons here today.

Discussions will mainly focus on preparations for the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons, due to take effect in the middle of next year.

About half of the 150 participants attending the three-day seminar will represent some 33 countries, most from the Asia- Pacific region.

Among the seminar's events is a mock-demonstration of the inspection and verification techniques of chemical weapons plants, which will be conducted at the PT Pupuk Kujang fertilizer factory in Cikampek, West Java.

Indonesia is one of the 154 signatories of the convention but has yet to ratify it.

During a visit here by the Executive Secretary of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Ian Kenyon, in February, the government gave its assurance that the Convention would be ratified by the end of the year.

The director of international organizations, Hasan Wirayuda, had previously stated that President Soeharto has given his approval of the convention.

"Indonesia does not own nor has it any intention of building chemical weapons, but it is committed to eliminating such weapons," he said.(mds)