The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was represented by its Deputy Director-General, Mr Brian Hawtin, at a solemn ceremony on 11 November 2005 in the city of Ieper, Belgium, to commemorate the eighty-seventh anniversary of the Armistice that ended the First World War.
Mr Hawtin placed a wreath at the Menin Gate in honour of the victims of that war.
In his address, following the commemoration ceremony, Mr Hawtin emphasised that the act of remembering the victims at Ieper is profoundly important for the OPCW, which embodies the collective will of the international community to prohibit the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons. He reiterated that the 175 Member States of the OPCW remain determined to ensure that chemicals are never again used as weapons of war.
At Ieper, Belgium, chemical weapons were first used on a mass scale on 22 April 1915, the first of many such attacks during the course of the First World War. Over one million combatants suffered injuries and over 90,000 soldiers were killed by these weapons, the first weapon of mass destruction ever used in combat. The Executive Council chamber within the OPCW headquarters, located in The Hague, the Netherlands, is named the Ieper Room to commemorate the victims of this reprehensible form of warfare.
The OPCW annual representation at this ceremony in Ieper is an expression of its commitment to eliminate this entire category of weapons of mass destruction and usher in a world free from the scourge of chemical weapons.
70/2005