USA: US CHEMICAL WEAPONS EXPERT: WARNING TO JAPAN

Описание: (20 Mar 1995) English/Nat

A US chemical weapons expert says he warned the Japanese government last year to be on the alert for a nerve gas attack like the one that hit Tokyo Monday.

Japanese police suspect the nerve gas sarin was used in today's (Monday) subway poisoning in Tokyo which killed six people and hospitalised thousands more.

APTV spoke today with Kyle Olson of the U.S. Chemical and Biological Arms Control Institute, who says he warned the Japanese about the threat of such an attack happening.

Kyle Olson, a chemical and biological weapons expert, was in Matsumoto, Japan, last summer studying a series of chemical leaks.

He was commissioned by several media organizations to investigate a mysterious nerve gas incident in the sparsely populated area of Matsumoto, in central Japan, that left seven people dead.

He also released his findings to the Japanese government.

SOUNDBITE:

"I began to reach the conclusion that this was a dress rehearsal of some type, that someone was trying to get the hang of using a new weapon. It was at that point that I began talking up in the written media, to the public, and also talking to some government officials, that this one was a preparatory stage, not the final event. And that the biggest target that I could see in Japan was the Tokyo subway system, and probably at a rush hour."
SUPER CAPTION: Kyle Olson, Chemical and Biological Arms Control Institute

Olson explained that sarin is not too difficult to make as the chemicals can be obtained easily.

SOUNDBITE:

"I don't think that the weapons that have been used in Tokyo are military. I think that there are some very strong indications that they are homemade."
SUPER CAPTION: Kyle Olson, Chemical and Biological Arms Control Institute.

Olson pointed out that the attack was pulled off with relative ease.

The weapons were simply placed in a suitcase.

He added that until demands are made by the terrorists that carried out the attack, another such incident is not unlikely.

SOUNDBITE:

"This represents the first time that terrorists have taken that step across the threshold, into the use of weapons of mass destruction. Officials in the intelligence community and the policing communities have been afraid for a long time that something like this might happen. And I'm afraid that what we have seen is an upping of the ante. I don't think that we can really afford not to be concerned that about the prospects that chemical and even biological weapons might find their way into terrorist attacks in the future."
SUPER CAPTION: Kyle Olson, Chemical and Biological Arms Control Institute.

A British poisons expert said that while today's hospitalised victims are likely to be safe from further harm, they could suffer long-term neurological damage resulting from their exposure to the Sarin gas.

SOUNDBITE:
"If they have survived so far, it is likely they will do so - we very much hope. Obviously then there is the continuous problem of headaches and perhaps some eye changes which will happen for a little while. Whether or not they will go on to develop other symptoms is unlikely but there could be long term neurological damage."
SUPER CAPTION: Dr. Virginia Murray, National Poisons Unit, U-K

Olson said he was surprised there were not more fatalities in today's attack.

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