OSCE at forefront of international efforts to reduce threat posed by small arms and ammunition, officials say

ATHENS, 1 December 2009 - The OSCE plays a crucial role in ensuring safe and secure storage of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW), and it is a leader in helping countries eliminate the threat posed by a toxic Soviet-era rocket fuel component, officials said today at an event held on the sidelines of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Athens. 

Stored in deteriorating containers in some former Soviet republics and other countries, the rocket fuel oxidizer mélange poses a serious threat to security - a single major leak could have a severe impact on biological life within a two-kilometer radius.

The OSCE last month began work to help Ukraine safely remove 16,000 tonnes of mélange. The Organization has already helped Albania, Armenia, Georgia and, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme, Montenegro to safely dispose of the substance. The first phase of the Ukraine project involves shipping of 3,168 tonnes by train to specialized chemical plants in Russia, where it will be processed into chemical products for civilian use.

"This is truly a field that reflects the OSCE's comprehensive concept of security, since stockpile management and security, besides its important politico-military dimension, has important implications for the economic, environmental, human and social spheres," said the Greek Alternate Minister of National Defence, Panos Beglitis.

The OSCE Secretary General, Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, said the OSCE had launched 17 projects on improving the stockpile management of SALW and conventional ammunition since 2003, when the Organization's participating States adopted a decision on such assistance.

"Donors have granted almost 11.5 million euros of extra-budgetary resources over the last four years for such projects," he said.

"This is only a start. To implement projects in 2010-2014, the OSCE needs to raise some 16 million euros more, of which 10 million euros alone will be needed to complete the elimination of the remaining mélange in Ukraine."

Hugh Neighbour, the Chief Arms Control Delegate in the U.S. Mission to the OSCE, told the event in Athens that the United States would sponsor the safe destruction of 1,440 tonnes of mélange, which is almost half of the 3,286 tonnes slated to be removed in the second phase of the project. Several other participating States also said they were considering donating money to later phases of the project.