Experts retrieve 542 chemical bombs in China
Beijing, June 25 (PTI): Experts from China and Japan have retrieved 542 chemical weapons, mostly bombs, which were abandoned by Japanese intruders during World War II in Qiqihar city in north-east China's Heilongjiang province, a report said today.
Most bombs were found at a site in Touzhan village, Yushutun town and only 21 of them were collected from the neighbouring area of the village, according to the Chinese expert team.
The clearing process went on smoothly without any incident of leakage reported during the process, they said.
A joint team, comprising Chinese and Japanese experts, arrived at the scene on June 16 after the chemical weapons were found by a local farmer on May 23 near his house in the city's Ang'angxi district, where a Japanese airport was located and a deployment regiment stationed during the war.
While the 30-member Japanese team has taken charge of the chemical weapons' recall process, personnel from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Defence Ministry and the Shenyang military area command of the People's Liberation Army assisted the Japanese team.
So far, some 2,000 Chinese have been reportedly victimised by the abandoned chemical weapons in the post-war period.
According to a treaty signed by the two countries, all the chemical weapons so far have been found in China would have have to be destroyed by 2007.
hinduonnet.com |
