CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION (CWC): WRAP-UP FOR

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 THE HAGUE 001545

SIPDIS

STATE FOR AC/CB, NP/CBM, VC/CCB, L/ACV, IO/S
SECDEF FOR OSD/ISP
JOINT STAFF FOR DD PMA-A FOR WTC
WINPAC FOR FOLEY
COMMERCE FOR BIS (GOLDMAN)
NSC FOR CHUPA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PARM PREL CWC
SUBJECT: CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION (CWC): WRAP-UP FOR
9-13 JUNE

REF: NEW YORK 1306

This is CWC-66-03.

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Summary
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Topics:
-- RevCon Reactions
-- Budget Consultations
-- ABAF
-- Counter-terrorism Working Group
-- Libya Inching Toward Ratification


1. There has been little commentary or discussion on the
RevCon. However, in general, the RevCon exceeded
expectations. Many delegations are eager to discuss how we
will pursue RevCon follow-up.


2. Three rounds of budget consultations were held 11-13 June
on Programs 3-6. The facilitator will hold one more round of
consultations, on 1 July, to cover Program 7 (Administration)
and any other outstanding issues. Consultations will then
not resume until the end of August.


3. The ABAF session from 9-13 June was hampered by a number
of issues: a preponderance of non-experts on the board; a
draft budget document devoid of justifications, descriptions
of real program activity, and 2003 actual figures; and a
Technical Secretariat notetaker incapable of writing
comprehensible English for the draft report.


4. The Counter-terrorism working group met 12 June to
discuss whether the Action Plans for universality and Article
VII implementation tasked by the RevCon might come under the
purview of this group.


5. Libyan parliament has passed the necessary measures to
allow Libya to join the CWC. The next step, according to the
Libyan charge, is to send the paper work to the FM.

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RevCon Reactions
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6. Since the end of the First Review Conference (RevCon)
there has been little commentary or discussion on the
Conference. In general, the RevCon exceeded expectations.
Many delegations came away with the sense that future work
had been enshrined in the two agreed texts. They see the
RevCon as an impetus to further action and as developing an
overall action plan for the Organization.


7. Many delegations are eager to discuss how we will pursue
RevCon follow-up and it will be a topic at next week's WEOG.
DDG Brian Hawtin has told delegations that he would like to
see one over-arching RevCon follow-up "Action Plan". Del has
expressed concern that such an exercise might allow a couple
delegations to hold hostage the two implementation-related
action plans tasked by the RevCon review document: on
universality and Article VII implementation.


8. Overall there has been no negative feedback on, only
praise for, the RevCon in general as well as U.S. actions at
the Conference.

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Budget Consultations
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9. The facilitator (Peter Beerwerth, Germany) held three
rounds of consultations 11-13 June on Verification,
Inspection Management and Operations, and International
Cooperation and Assistance. Senior program directors (D-2
level) continued to air their differences with management
decisions not to include their full requests in the draft
budget.


10. India has approached the facilitator to say that they
have problems with the increase in OCPF ("Other Chemical
Production Facilities") inspections under Article VI.

11. The facilitator will hold one more round of
consultations, on 1 July, to cover Administration and any
other outstanding issues such as the Indian complaint.
Consultations will not resume until the end of August.


12. Del has been joined by others (South Africa, Iran,
Japan, Germany, France, the UK, Canada, Spain, Austria) in
asking for language in the budget document to justify
unfreezing four additional positions, and to elaborate on
what activities would be carried out in key areas such as
External Relations' outreach for universality and
International Cooperation and Assistance. There is virtually
no language at all in the current budget document in these
respects. The new Deputy Director General, Brian Hawtin, has
now heard these pleas and acknowledged the requests. The
Director for External Relations handed out a non-paper with
additional justifications, but it is unclear if his
rationales were cleared within the Technical Secretariat.


13. With respect to the request to unfreeze a P-3 position
in the Legal Office, Del recommends we tell the Director
General to reassign qualified staff already on board to meet
the very considerable demand for additional legislative
implementation support. Talented German national Ralf Trapp
who supported the RevCon documents preparation, and Canadian
Gordon Vachon who currently fills an unneeded Inspectorate
post unfrozen by the former Director General so as to give
Vachon a job, are natural candidates.


14. The Director for International Cooperation and
Assistance confirmed that the Director General found an
additional 336,000 euros for ICA programs, as promised at the
last annual Conference, and these are being spent. The
additional funds came entirely from keeping posts vacant.
The draft budget contains a general unsubstantiated statement
that funding for ICA remains inadequate. The director added
orally that for 2004 "we have practically taken a step
backward in terms of what we can do."


15. India and Iran spoke to insist that the percentage
increase in the ICA budget exactly match the overall budget
percentage increase in 2004.


16. DDG Brian Hawtin appealed to delegations to avoid
micro-management and to lift constraints under the current
system that do not contribute to effective use of resources,
such as the constraints on transfers between Chapter 1
(Verification) and Chapter 2 (Administration),and
constraints on regrading or shifting posts. He referred to
broader structural problems such as the lag in Article IV/V
reimbursements because of the uncertainty about when this
money is going to come in.


17. Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Portugal and
Germany all told WEOG that their capitals would have great
difficulty agreeing to the proposed budget. Germany points
out that the almost 9 percent increase includes three percent
just to fund turnover in implementation of the decision to
begin enforcing a non-career organization.

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ABAF
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18. The session from 9-13 June was hampered by:

-- a preponderance of non-experts on the board;

-- a draft budget document devoid of justifications,
descriptions of real program activity, and 2003 actual
figures; and

-- a Technical Secretariat notetaker incapable of writing
comprehensible English for the draft report.


19. The UK and the Netherlands did not send experts, and
Germany, Japan and Italy were represented by non-expert
delegates. Washington might consider approaches to these
capitals to urge that they support ABAF by providing
qualified financial experts capable of straightening out the
disarray that continues to characterize the OPCW's budget
process.

20. The Director General made a strong pitch to ABAF to fund
consultants to enable him to "further the universal
geographic distribution of staff". The Argentine delegate as
said that because the CWC is a security treaty, "major"
countries are pressuring the Director General to use such
consultants to remedy what they see as under-representation
by their countries among the senior staff of the TS.

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Counter Terrorism Working Group Meets
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21. The Executive Council's Counter Terrorism Working Group,
under the chairmanship of Deloff, met on 12 June to hear a
report from Special Projects Director Sergei Batsanov on his
trip to the Security Council's Counter Terrorism Committee
New York on 15 May. It also heard a report on a meeting of
the Southeast European Cooperative Initiative (SECI) attended
by Irakli Beridze of Batsanov's staff, and discussed the way
forward in implementing the action plans on universality and
implementation of Article VII tasked to the TS and Executive
Council at the Review Conference.


22. In his presentation, Batsanov said little that was not
covered in Reftel. Beridze reported that SECI, a regional
organization dedicated to combating trans-border crime
(Albania, Bosnia and Herzgovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece,
Hungary, FRY of Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Slovenia, Serbia
and Montenegro, and Turkey) had created an anti-terrorism
sub-group. Beridze's pitch focused on legal compliance. He
passed out to the Working Group a draft report of a SECI WMD
subgroup that had an item calling on member states to focus
on "harmonizing/ developing their legislation with the EU and
international legal framework in force, applicable to NBC
issues, on civil and penal aspects."


23. Delegations took note of the need for action plans on
universality and legal implementation. The chair raised the
question of whether pursuit of those issues might be taken up
under a different facilitation, but no delegates expressed
particular interest in taking the EC's action on the issue
elsewhere. The chair at the end asked the TS to provide its
thoughts on an action plan to the Working Group.


24. The chairman of the working group will seek to place the
counter terrorism issue on the agenda for EC-33 either as a
separate item or under "Any Other Business." This will allow
the Council to task the Counterterrorism Working Group to
develop an action plan for both items in close consultation
with the TS. Del understands that the TS will offer its
thoughts on an action plan in the DG's statement to the EC.
Del also understands that the TS is giving careful
consideration to sending small teams comprised of TS staff to
selected countries in the greatest need of assistance on
compliance issues such as Article VII as well as Article VI.


25. The Working Group is likely to meet again in mid-July to
review the action plans and make a recommendation on them to
the September Executive Council Session (EC-34). Del would
welcome Washington thoughts on specifics for an action plan
that would involve the capabilities of the TS and member
states.

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Libya Inching Toward Ratification
--------------


26. OPCW special projects director Sergei Batsanov advised
Del on 12 June that he had just met with the Libyan charge in
The Hague who told him that the Libyan parliament had passed
the necessary measures to allow Libya to join the CWC. The
next step, according to the Libyan charge, is to send the
paper work to the FM. It would take about a month, he said,
to complete the necessary paper work before they file papers
to join.


27. Kellogg sends.
SOBEL