In November 1998, London’s Sunday Times, citing Western intelligence and Israeli military sources, reported that Israel was developing an “ethno-bomb” to target only Arabs while leaving Jews unaffected.
Scientists at Israel’s Nes Tziyona research facility were trying to identify distinctive genes carried by Arabs to create a genetically modified virus or bacteria that would be used as a biological weapon against Arab and Islamic countries surrounding the Jewish state, as they threaten to redraw the Middle East map without Israel.
Scientists are trying to use viruses and bacteria to alter DNA inside living cells and attack only those cells bearing Arabic genes, a very complex task as both Jews and Arabs are Semitic peoples. Many are skeptical about the development of the biological weapon and, two decades later, Israel never acknowledged it. But the rumors about it persist until today.
Discussions in social media and chat groups about germ warfare have been revived as the novel coronavirus rapidly spread from Wuhan, a central Chinese city, to more than 125 countries worldwide, infecting about 300,000 people and killing more than 14,000, mostly elderly and those with underlying conditions, like diabetes, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and hypertension.
China and the United States have been hurling accusations against each other that the coronavirus was a biological weapon, after the coronavirus disease first appeared in Wuhan in December 2019. There were reports in the United States media that there were three Chinese biological weapons research facilities in Wuhan and that the virus could have accidentally leaked from these secret laboratories.
But China’s foreign ministry officials fired back at Washington, spreading their own conspiracy theory that the disease was brought to Wuhan by the US Army when hundreds of athletes from its armed forces took part in the World Military Games in October 2019 in Wuhan.
Lijian Zhao, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, even posted on Twitter a video of Robert Redfield, director for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testifying in Congress on March 11, about some influenza deaths in the country that were later identified as coronavirus disease-related. He did not say when those people died.
But the Chinese official linked Redfield’s statements to theories that the disease, declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), did not originate from Wuhan and was brought by the US military to China.
There is still no evidence to prove the coronavirus disease was a product of biological warfare research but it is no secret that world powers, like the United States, China, Russia other smaller countries, like Iraq and Syria, have been doing research on viruses, bacteria, and even insects to produce weapons of mass destruction.
Even non-state actors, like extremist and terrorist organizations, have been trying to get their hands on these weapons. Hollywood however has been more successful in portraying germ warfare.
But there are historical accounts, some dating back to the ancient period when armies used decaying corpses as weapons during the time of Roman empire, and during the Second World War, the Vietnam War and in the Middle East during the time of Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein.
The impact from a biological weapon was far deadlier than a nuclear bomb and a chemical weapon, which are more targeted. Germ warfare targets everyone – combatants and civilians – as the disease can be undetected for days but could potentially infect large numbers of people as the world has seen with pandemics.
The United Kingdom was the first country to successfully weaponize a variety of deadly pathogens and mass produced them. However, it never used them. France, Japan and the US also have programs for biological warfare during and after the war ended in 1945. Japan had a plan to use germ warfare in the US but never got the chance to launch, because two nuclear detonations in Nagasaki and Hiroshima ended the Pacific theater in August 1945.
Since 1972, offensive biological warfare, including development, mass production, stockpiling and use of germ weapons, has been outlawed by the Biological Weapons Convention. It has been signed and ratified by 170 countries as of 2013.
Many countries continue to pursue research on biological weapons despite the ban. The focus of these activities has been to find an antidote and strengthen defenses against these weapons, which could also be available to non-state actors, for diseases like anthrax, bubonic plague, ebola, q-fever and smallpox.
The potential for accidental infection even when researchers are aware and careful in handling these toxins is very high, and makes it too risky to develop and work on biological weapons and even defenses against them.
Some countries have put up secret laboratories for biological warfare research away from their urban centers and even go to third countries to freely experiment on these deadly materials.
Southeast Asian countries made history in November 1971 when the five original members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) – Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand – declared the region a zone of peace, freedom and neutrality (ZOPFAN).
The ZOPFAN was designed to keep superpower rivals, the United States and the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), away from influencing the region and set up a nuclear weapons-free zone.
But it took more than two decades before Asean could agree and adopt a treaty to ban nuclear weapons within their areas and by 2018, all 10 member-states have ratified the treaty.
Asean can make history anew by declaring the region a Bio-Chemical Weapons-Free Zone. There has been no comprehensive treaty that covers Chemical, Biological, Radioactive and Nuclear (CBRN) weapons as there are several conventions and treaties for each category.
Southeast Asian nations can already start consultations and informal discussions of a CBRN-free zone ahead of early next month’s summit meetings in Vietnam to make the region safe, stable, peaceful and prosperous.
Asean foreign ministers and health ministers have already met and issued joint statements on addressing the coronavirus outbreak as cases continued to rise in the region.
In Malaysia, coronavirus cases have exceeded 1,300 weeks after a large gathering at a mosque in Kuala Lumpur for a weeklong religious event, Tabligh Akbar. More than 16,000 Muslims from 27 countries went to the event but after the gathering, coronavirus outbreaks began in Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia.
It has the fourth highest number of cases in Asia behind China, South Korea and Iran. But the Philippine is not far behind as nearly 400 cases have been reported as of Saturday. Asean member-states should stand together and help each other address the pandemic disease.
Asean can start by banning chemical, biological, radioactive and nuclear weapons in the region, prohibiting major powers from setting research laboratories for weapons development as well as stockpiling weapons of mass destruction of any kind.
Nuclear states and other countries may not sign the CBRN-free treaty but such an agreement will be the first step towards a free, safe, stable and peaceful world.