Sri Lanka free of chemical weapons

by Dulmin Samarasinghe

The National Authority for the Implementation of Chemical Weapons Convention (NA CWC) in Sri Lanka Director Dr Rohan P. Perera,, said that chemical weapons related substances or chemicals that could be converted into chemical weapons have not been brought into Sri Lanka.

He said that Sri Lanka imported only one scheduled chemical. Since 2005 Sri Lanka has been sending data to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in Hague, the Netherlands.

All member States including Sri Lanka need to provide comprehensive annual data on all its imports, exports and production of scheduled chemicals to the OPCW headquarters in the Netherlands.

The headquarters compares the data provided by member states regarding its imports, exports and production. If there are any discrepancies in the data provided, the headquarters informs its member States.

Taking into consideration the data provided over the past years, no chemical that could be used as a chemical weapon has been imported, exported or produced in Sri Lanka, he said Sri Lanka has been one of the first member States and signatories to the OPCW since January 14, 1993.

The National Authority for the Implementation of Chemical Weapons Convention (NA CWC) was set up under the Ministry of Industry and Commerce according to Act No. 58 of 2007 – (1561-23) special gazette notification, and implemented in 2008 under the international treaty “Chemical Weapons Convention”.

One of the main objectives of the NA CWC is to promote and disseminate best practices in chemical safety and scrutinise industries which are using hazardous chemicals for manufacturing purposes.

The National Authority adopts measures to ensure that toxic scheduled chemicals are used only for peaceful purposes, register the use or handle scheduled chemicals, and issue recommendations to the Import/Export Control Department for the import/export of scheduled chemicals.

The Ministry of Finance has issued a special gazette notification on the scheduled chemicals that could be imported and exported, and permits for the purpose.

A permit from the Import and Export Control Department is needed to import or export chemicals. A recommendation from the National Authority is compulsory to release the chemical from the Customs.