BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – FIRE SUB-OFFICER Abdias Samuel of the Nevis Division of the St. Kitts-Nevis Fire and Rescue Services recently returned from the Netherlands, where he made a presentation at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in the Hague on Monday, May 2.
Samuel said that since the Cricket World Cup in 2007, the OPCW has been working with a number of Caribbean countries that are members of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) to develop an effective regional response to incidents involving the use of chemical weapons or the misuse of toxic chemicals by terrorists.
He had left the Federation on April 29 to make the presentation on behalf of the Caribbean team to the CWC member states at the OPCW Headquarters in Hague.
The aim, he explained, was to showcase the successful development of the Caribbean’s response by working together with the OPCW.
He told SKNVibes that his presentation depicted what the Caribbean has done in the past few years in terms of preparedness in response to alleged use of weapons of mass destruction against OPCW member states.
Samuel said that the OPCW consists of over 188 member states but all of them were not represented at the meeting because it was only for executive members, including diplomats and ambassadors.
“The presentation was about how the mechanism got started in the Caribbean due to the request made to OPCW by CARICOM to develop the capacity of having chemical technicians throughout the Caribbean to handle any incidents,” he said.
Samuel has benefitted from past training organised by the OPCW in Trinidad (2007/2008), Jamaica (2009) and most recently in Tunisia, Africa in October 2010, where he participated in a major Assistance and Protection Exercise (ASSISTEX3).
He said that the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence had requested that the National Authority in St. Kitts be present at the meeting in Hague.
“Some of the points we discussed were on regional integration…OPCW engaging Caribbean Disaster Emergency Agency (CDEMA) which already has structures that deals with regional emergency response management for all CARICOM or CDEMA States,” he said.
He declared that the Caribbean needs to acquire more resources and training, especially international training, and to create a stronger skill base with the international community.
“One of my key points was to integrate the Americas, Latin and South America with the Caribbean, which are closer to the Caribbean geographically than Europe, so that we can all do continuous training with them. We stressed that the CARICOM Secretariat and the OPCW Secretariat should engage in discussions to build some sort of policies and a level of understanding,” he said.
In terms of chemical weapons affecting the Caribbean, Samuel said that during the World Cup there was a small outbreak of Chlorine in one of the hotels where players were staying.
“Chlorine is an asphyxiant chemical that will require technical expertise which will be able to detect it, contract it and decontaminate the area.
“Trinidad and Jamaica are highly industrious countries and will be prone to such. What is critical is that we have terrorists who will inflict mass pain on society and will use chemical weapons which are rapid destroyers that you wouldn’t see but just feel the effects,” he said.
In terms of the Federation being affected by the use of chemical weapons, Samuel said that it is important for the nation to be prepared.
“We have cruise ships, we have airport, we have international flights that come in, so terrorists will seek vulnerable countries that they feel wouldn’t have strong security to deal with such incidents to target. It doesn’t matter about the country not being a high risk one, but being prepared to handle if it does occur. We have to also look at it as a wider region. If a member is affected, we can also be called upon to assist,” Samuel said.
The government of the United Kingdom has taken a keen interest in capacity building for the Caribbean region in terms of training and awareness of chemical weapons, and it has been sponsoring these initiatives.
