Hazard team to clean wartime mustard-gas mess in China

The Asahi Shimbun

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An emergency disposal team on Wednesday will start work in Qiqihar in
China'sHeilongjiang province on the latest cache of mustard-gas and other
toxicweapons left by the Japanese Imperial Army, Cabinet Office officials said
Monday.

It will be a joint operation with a Chinese team.

Fifty-two chemical shells abandoned by the army at the end of World War II
were found in a Qiqihar suburb in late May, the latest in a string of such
findings.

Tokyo's step is apparently intended to avert the rising tide of negative
public sentiment in China toward Japan that swelled last summer over a fatal
chemical-weapons leak.

Then, one man died and 43 others were sickened after being exposed to toxic
liquid that leaked from abandoned weapons at a construction site in Qiqihar
. It triggered a surge of anti-Japan protests.

Tokyo paid about 300 million yen in medical and other expenses. Disposal
work started on that site in November.

In the latest discovery, hundreds more weapons are believed to be buried.
Nearby residents were evacuated.

Beijing asked Tokyo to help retrieve the weapons, warning that unless swift
action is taken to dispel residents' concerns, anti-Japanese sentiment could
again flare.

The dispatched team will consist of about 30 experts, including retired Defense
Agency officials, according to the Cabinet's Abandoned Chemical Weapons Office.

The team will dig up the poison-gas shells and seal them for storage. It
will take several weeks, officials said.

The state-run Xinhua News Agency has also reported a drum containing Japanese
chemical weapons was found inside the city. Some residents complained of
health problems.

Japanese officials estimate that about 700,000 chemical weapons were abandoned
in China at the end of the war. China puts the number at 1.8 million.

In April, the two governments agreed to build a disposal facility in Jilin
province, where the bulk of the yet-to-be recovered chemical weapons are
believed buried.

Under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, Japan is obliged to dispose of
all discarded chemical weapons in China by 2007. It began research in the
1990s and disposal work in 2000.(IHT/Asahi: June 15,2004) (06/15)