Nerve Gas Weapons Due to Be Out of West Germany by September

U.S. and West German officials announced Wednesday that all the deadly nerve gas chemical weapons stored in the federal republic will be removed by the end of September.

Defense Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg pleaded with West Germans to help ensure that there are “no attempts at disruption” of the outbound shipments of the chemical weapons, which will begin in July.

Stoltenberg said the removal will contribute toward a world-wide chemical weapons ban and an early U.S.-Soviet agreement to destroy poison gas stockpiles.

The U.S. chemical weapons on German soil have long been criticized by peace activists and environmentalists.

“In the interest of a safe pull-out,” said Stoltenberg at a news conference here, “I appeal to all citizens who may be affected in any particular way by this issue: Help to make sure that the withdrawal of all chemical weapons is carried out without danger and without attempts at disruption.”

The defense minister did not spell out what form of “disruption” he had in mind.

U.S. Gen. John Heldstab, deputy chief of staff for operations of the U.S. Army in Europe, said the chemicals stored at Clausen represented 1% of all such U.S. weapons.

The chemical weapons, in artillery shells, will be trucked from Clausen, the ammunition depot near the French border where they have been stored for 20 years, to Miesau, about 20 miles away. There, they will be put on trains and hauled to the North Sea port of Nordenham.

They will then be loaded aboard U.S. ships and carried to the Army Chemical Activity on Johnson Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, where they will be destroyed.

Stoltenberg said that heavy security will be in place when the 100,000 artillery shells, tipped with nerve gas, are removed to make sure that every precaution is taken for safety. The ammunition handlers and truck drivers will be specially trained, officials said.

The large shells, 155 and 203 millimeters in diameter, will be placed in airtight steel cases, the officials said, and packed in 5,000 transport containers. West German police will guard the shipments from the depot to the port, and commercial flights over the route to be used by the trucks or trains will be banned, they said.

In 1986, then-President Ronald Reagan told Chancellor Helmut Kohl that all U.S. chemical weapons would be withdrawn from West Germany by 1992. That timetable was pushed forward last year by President Bush.