Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

I refer the Deputy to the reply I have just given to the priority question on this issue. There have been several recent media reports expressing concern over the reported use of white phosphorus and suggesting that its use was in breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention. The question of whether white phosphorus is a chemical weapon is important since such weapons are regarded as weapons of mass destruction, and under the chemical weapons convention their use is prohibited in all circumstances.

A spokesman for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which implements the provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention, was quoted in some media reports as suggesting that the weapons concerned were not prohibited by the convention. My Department sought clarification direct from the OPCW. The organisation indicated, in response, that white phosphorous is an incendiary weapon and that since incendiary weapons achieve their intended effect through the release of thermal energy, or heat, they would not fall within the scope of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

White phosphorus is regarded as a conventional weapon and falls under the Convention on Prohibition or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons which may be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to have Indiscriminate Effects, CCW, which came into force in 1983. Protocol III of this convention deals directly with prohibitions and restrictions on the use of incendiary weapons.

In the light of the OPCW reasoning that white phosphorus does not fall within the scope of the CWC, a campaign to have it listed under the convention would be extremely unlikely to be successful. That said, all of us would be very concerned about its use except in the most controlled circumstances and subject to the prohibitions and restrictions set out in the CCW convention.

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