U.S. Ambassador Donald A. Mahley addressed the 28th Regular Session of the Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague, The Netherlands on March 19, 2002
Mr. Chairman, Colleagues: We open this 28th session of the Executive Council under, in our view, unusually severe circumstances. The United States is seriously troubled that the very survival of the organization charged with overseeing implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention is at stake. We do not speak of these concerns, nor have we arrived at them, lightly. Our concerns for the functioning of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) are shared by others -- by many other State Parties here today and by elements of the United States Government responsible for providing United States financial support for this organization.
There is always a tendency in international organizations to look at the long-range future as something that can remedy the ills that exist today. Such an attitude permits avoiding difficult decisions and deferring conflict. Unfortunately, it can also permit situations to deteriorate nearly to the point of unrecoverable difficulty. That is, unfortunately, the situation we face today. The United States, and, we believe, a number of the other states in the room today, have concluded that the health -- the viability -- of the OPCW faces a crisis that demands immediate correction. The current leadership of the Technical Secretariat is driving the Organization, and thereby the Convention, into collapse. It must be removed immediately. Despite the extraordinary nature of the remedy, there is no other option for the health of the Convention.
Mr. Chairman, Colleagues: We open this 28th session of the Executive Council under, in our view, unusually severe circumstances. The United States is seriously troubled that the very survival of the organization charged with overseeing implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention is at stake. We do not speak of these concerns, nor have we arrived at them, lightly. Our concerns for the functioning of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) are shared by others -- by many other State Parties here today and by elements of the United States Government responsible for providing United States financial support for this organization.
There is always a tendency in international organizations to look at the long-range future as something that can remedy the ills that exist today. Such an attitude permits avoiding difficult decisions and deferring conflict. Unfortunately, it can also permit situations to deteriorate nearly to the point of unrecoverable difficulty. That is, unfortunately, the situation we face today. The United States, and, we believe, a number of the other states in the room today, have concluded that the health -- the viability -- of the OPCW faces a crisis that demands immediate correction. The current leadership of the Technical Secretariat is driving the Organization, and thereby the Convention, into collapse. It must be removed immediately. Despite the extraordinary nature of the remedy, there is no other option for the health of the Convention.