Among 31 Japanese bombs recovered on Wednesday in Ning'an City,
northeast China's Heilongjiang Province seven have been
identified as being chemical weapons.
Experts from Japan and China began excavating a pit on Wednesday
at the Ning'an Chemical and Light Industry Company where they
expect to find more than 200 bombs which were abandoned by Japanese
troops at the end of World War II.
Wang Xuefeng, a Chinese official on the recovery team, estimated
100 of the bombs could be armed with deadly chemicals.
Over the course of eight days of work 20 Japanese experts along
with their Chinese counterparts will confirm the status of the
weapons and make them safe.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Japan abandoned at least 2
million tons of chemical weapons in China. More than 2,000 Chinese
people have been killed by abandoned chemical weapons since the war
ended in 1945.
Liu Yiren, who heads an office in charge of abandoned weapons at
the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said China had so far retrieved and
disposed of nearly 40,000 chemical weapons. "However, it's only the
tip of the iceberg," he said.
A lack of information from Japan about where they abandoned or
buried their weapons has made it difficult to track them down and
account for them.
The two countries have conducted more than 60 courses on the
safe recovery of weapons, said Liu.
While the experts have packed the weapons to make them safe, Liu
said, none of them had been destroyed as they were extremely
dangerous and a disposal plant would be built soon to deal with
them.
(Xinhua News Agency July 6, 2006)