Mikhail Gorbachev's speech to the Belgian Senate ,Wednesday 22 November 2000
Brussels, November, 2000ñMikhail Gorbachev, president of the global environmental organization Green Cross, called today (Wednesday, 22 November) for
the destruction of huge stockpiles of chemical weapons worldwide, specifically in Russia and the United States.
"The continued existence of these enormous, dangerous and costly stockpiles is a threat to all of us," said the former President of the Soviet
Union, who was invited to address the Belgian Senate on the subject.
"Nerve gases, mustard gas, lewisite and other dangerous chemical agents kill indiscriminately, especially when they are detonated by terrorist groups
in public places or leak from stockpile sites and drift downwind. These old arsenals also constitute serious public health and environmental hazards
to local communities. But our main concern must be global security. The proliferation threat is real. Many of them are small enough to fit into a
backpack yet powerful enough to kill thousands. Moreover, they are vulnerable to theft and diversion.
"I wrote recently to around 40 national leaders in Europe and the Americas, among them the President of the Belgian Senate, Armand De Decker, asking
them to join me in an international campaign to rid the world once and for all time of these hideous weapons," Gorbachev went on.
www.gci.ch... 
