[A-List] Baltic Sea: WMDs found

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Britain keeps lid on Baltic dump site of Nazis' deadly weapons
By Daniel Howden in Tallin
The Independent
03 June 2003

Thousands of tons of chemical weapons dating back to the Second World War
have been rusting away at the bottom of the Baltic Sea and are beginning to
leak, scientists and environmentalists have warned.

A poisonous legacy of Nazi Germany, more than 300,000 tons of weapons
confiscated by the Allies were dumped between 1945 and 1947. The toxic
stockpile includes nearly 65,000 tons of mustard gas, nerve agent sarin and
the notorious death camp gas, Zyklon B.

Under the terms of a pact drawn up in 1945 between Britain, America, France
and Russia, the allies agreed that the weapons would be disposed of at sea.
According to Russian officials, Britain and the US had planned to offload
their lethal cargo 4,000m down in the depths of the North Atlantic but were
forced to scuttle their flotilla in the shallower Baltic after hitting bad
weather. The Russians dumped their share of the German weapons even closer
to coastal waters at a depth of only 130m in some instances.

More recent research has revealed four known dump sites: Gotland Deep, near
Latvia and Lithuania; Bornholm Deep near Denmark, Skaggerak near Sweden and
Norway; and Little Belt close to Denmark and Germany. Russia is the only
Baltic country relatively distant from those ecological hotspots but it has
led efforts to raise awareness of the problem.

Regional governments have downplayed risks but a scientific mission based in
the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad has joined Green groups in warning that
the impact of a simultaneous release into the ecosystem could be
devastating.

Professor Vadim Paka of the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology - which earned
worldwide renown working on the deep water filming in James Cameron's
blockbuster Titanic - has been monitoring suspected dump sites since 1997.

His research team has taken samples from a number of sites and was alarmed
to find increasing instances of mustard gas in the Baltic Sea.

"Some shells will take 50 years, some 100 years but large numbers of these
weapons could corrode at the same time," the professor warned.

Environmentalists agree and warn that a widespread leakage could spell the
end of the region's fisheries and tourism sector. "It would unquestionably
be a catastrophe with very, very strong effect on the whole ecosystem,"
Dimitri Litvinov, spokesperson for Greenpeace Sweden said.

Greenpeace have been assessing the results of an independent study and are
concerned the extent of any environmental damage would be exacerbated by the
geography of the Baltic Sea, a body of water almost entirely enclosed by
land.

It could be Britain, which preferred to scuttle entire ships rather than the
Russia's approach of tossing shells overboard that has left the deadlier
problem. Although their ships were sunk with the intention of sealing off
the cargo at the deeper dump of Skaggerak, the rusting containers are more
likely to burst simultaneously in the kind of leak Mr Litvinov is warning
of. Scientists have accused Britain of failing to cooperate by classifying
vital documents on dump site locations. Neither the Foreign Office or the
Ministry of Defence could confirm or deny these allegations when contacted.

A 1996 study commissioned by the Finnish-based Helsinki Commission (Helcom)
concluded there was no immediate cause for concern and any attempts to
salvage the materiel would be more dangerous than leaving it on the seabed.

Their scientists argued chemical agents would dissolve harmlessly upon
contact with water. But Professor Paka believes their studies have ignored
one chillingly unique feature of the sunken arsenal. Nazi scientists
commissioned a special new formula of mustard gas for the first winter of
their troubled Russian campaign amid concerns it would not withstand the
freezing temperature. The "winter mustard" they delivered contained 37 per
cent arsenic, creating a viscous substance that Professor Paka maintains is
insoluble. Officials estimate 20 per cent of Germany's entire poisonous gas
production is down there, including almost all the winter gas.

Russian scientists have voiced concerns that Helcom's conclusions are now
out of date and governments are afraid to act for fear of sparking a public
panic and a long-term recession for fisheries and tourism. A large number of
accidents involving fisherman trawling vintage shells off the seabed led
Helcom to release detailed guidelines on treating victims of exposure to
chemical weapons. Officials reported 36 instances of munitions being dredged
up by nets. Even the slightest contact with mustard gas can lead to burns
and permanent blindness, the guidelines warn, and heavy waterproofs provide
no protection against these antique killers.

A consensus is emerging on a solution that would involve coating the
munitions in a special concrete but the cost could be as high as $3bn
(£1.8bn).