Special to WorldTribune.com

LONDON — Libya, despite its 2003 agreement with the West, has
maintained a hidden stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said Libya
maintained a stockpile of chemical weapons not reported to the
international community. OPCW said the amount of chemical munitions far
exceeded that which Tripoli had declared under the regime of Col. Moammar
Gadhafi.

“They are not ready to use, because they are not loaded with agents,” OPCW spokesman Michael Luhan said.

In a statement on Jan. 20, OPCW, based in the Hague, disclosed sulfur mustard and artillery shells in the Ruwagha depot in southeastern Libya. Inspectors said the shells, designed but not filled with CW, were found during a visit to Ruwagha that ended on Jan. 19.

“The OPCW inspectors verified the declared chemical weapons, which consist of sulfur mustard agent that is not loaded into munitions,” the organization said. “At the same time, at the request of the Libyan authorities the inspectors examined munitions, mainly artillery shells, which they determined are chemical munitions and hence declarable.

The organization, which cooperated with the United Nations, Germany and
the new interim government in Tripoli, did not say how many CW agents were
found. In 2004, Libya joined OPCW, and Gadhafi was said to have destroyed
54 percent of his declared sulfur mustard and 40 percent of the precursor
chemicals.

But the inspections were suspended in February 2011 when Libya’s
destruction facility at Ruwagha malfunctioned. Under Gadhafi’s pledge, Libya was to
have destroyed all WMD stockpiles by April 29, 2012.

OPCW said the post-Gadhafi government in Tripoli discovered the CW and
submitted a formal declaration in November. The organization said it expected a
Libyan plan and deadline to destroy all declared material by this May.

  Moammar Gadhafi, Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Report confirms Gadhafi concealed chemical weapons stockpile, Ruwagha, sulfur mustard agent, Tripoli