Japanese Kyodo News
November 7
ears are growing that anthrax and other bacteria could spread from an island in the Aral Sea in central Asia as a drop in the sea level has created a land link outside Aral, enabling animals to travel back and forth the former Soviet testing ground for biological weapons, researchers said Wednesday.
The findings on Vozrozhdeniye Island, which is shared by Kazakstan and Uzbekistan, will be reported at a five-day international conference on the conservation of lake environments to be held from Monday in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture.
The water level in the Aral Sea has been shrinking rapidly as a result of dams that have been built on rivers that feed it.
Norio Ishida, professor of Kyoto University and a Japanese delegate to the conference, said, "We have not been able to confirm whether (test facility) removal operations have started and we also cannot rule out the possibility of bacteria being carried out by animals after a land link is created."
The Soviet military conducted the first bio-weaponry experiment using rabbit fever bacterium in 1936, according to the Monterey Institute of International Studies of the United States.
Open-air experiments using anthrax, plague and smallpox germs were conducted on Vozrozhdeniye until the Russian government shut down the facilities in April 1992, according to the researchers.
The Pentagon found last year that more than 10 tons of anthrax with enhanced toxicity for military use have been dumped underground on the island.
Satellite photos, including those taken in August by the Tokyo-based Remote Sensing Technology Center of Japan, show Vozrozhdeniye shares similar vegetation outside the Aral Sea, the researchers said.
The southern tip of Vozrozhdeniye, which was increasingly exposed from the water, has already "reached" the outer shores of the Aral Sea much earlier than anticipated. Experts believed a land link may be established by around 2010.
Before the water level started declining in the Aral Sea, Vozrozhdeniye had around 200 square kilometers of land. The land area has now expanded almost 10-fold.
Russian officials said the facility was demolished and bacteria killed before the island was deserted.
Ishida said scientists have been surprised by the quick pace of shrinkage in the water level.
"We are conducting research on possible health damage to residents on the shores but there is a limit to it," he said.
Agriculture and fisheries are key industries in the Aral Sea region.
Ishida urged governments to tackle the problem of Vozrozhdeniye, called a time bomb of biological weapons.
The former Soviet Union chose Vozrozhdeniye for bio-weaponry research as the Aral Sea was surrounded by desert and the island was virtually uninhabited. Severe climate conditions, including a maximum summer temperature of 60 C, were also thought suitable for curbing the growth of bacteria.
Open-air testing facilities are located at the southern part of the island, and methods for spraying and detecting bacteria were researched.
Gear for anti-biological weapons is also said to have been tested on the island before use by Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the war from 1978 to 1989.