On the eighty-fourth anniversary of the end of the First World War, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was honoured to participate in a solemn commemoration ceremony in the city of Ieper, Belgium, on 11 November 2002.
Ieper holds a special significance for the Organisation since poison gas was first used on a mass scale on the battlefields of Ieper on 22 April 1915.
During the course of the First World War ninety thousand were killed by exposure to chemical weapons. To remember the victims of this heinous form of warfare, the Organisation has named its Executive Council chamber as the Ieper Room.
In his address, following the commemoration ceremony at Menin Gate in Ieper, The Director-General of the OPCW, Mr Rogelio Pfirter, emphasised the importance of the occasion, stating, “Armistice Day, the day of peace, serves to honour the victims of this horrific war, to honour the memories of all victims of chemical weapons and to steel our resolve never to falter in fulfilling our mission to completely eliminate chemical weapons forever.”
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