New York Times
August 19, 2003

China Mustard Gas Crisis

By Reuters

BEIJING, Aug. 18 - Leaking barrels of Japanese chemical weapons from World War II that poisoned dozens of people in China have been neutralized and are no longer a threat, the official New China News Agency said today.

Forty-three people had been sent to the hospital since five barrels of mustard gas were unearthed at a construction site in the northeastern city of Qiqihar on Aug. 4, it said.

The agency quoted the top Communist Party official in Qiqihar as saying that the chemical weapons had been "disinfected thoroughly."

Last week, Japan apologized, and the government pledged to dispose of the arms as soon as possible. Japanese doctors who came to China to help treat the ill went back to Japan today, the news agency said.