H.E. Fernando Arias at the Menin Gate.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — 24 April 2019 — The Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), H.E. Mr Fernando Arias, attended the Ceremony of the Last Post in Ieper, and visited the demilitarisation plant at Poelkapelle, Belgium, from 22-23 April.
In Ieper, the Director-General participated in the ceremony at the Menin Gate Memorial on 22 April and paid his respects to the victims of chemical weapons attacks during the World War I as part of the Ceremony of the Last Post.
Standing under the arch of the Hall of Memory, the Director-General presented the words of the Exhortation, taken from Laurence Binyon’s poem “For the Fallen”, before laying a wreath on behalf of the Organisation, alongside the Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Belgium to the OPCW, H.E. Ambassador Christian Lepage.
On 23 April, the Director-General visited the destruction installation in Poelkapelle where he received a comprehensive overview of the facility’s work in identifying and destroying of Ceremony of the Last Post in Ieper (OCWs) from the World War I.
