PDF file: Annual Report 2002/2003 - Scottish Crop Research Institute

Director’s Report
heads of state and their representatives. Two international
criminal tribunals met during 2002 and 2003 –
the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia, and the International Criminal Tribunal
for Rwanda; both had a backlog of cases, ensuring
that with their slow rate of progressing cases, the tribunals
would sit for the foreseeable future.
Terrorist Events According to the US Department of
State, during 2001 and despite the September 11
attacks, the number of terrorist attacks fell to 346
compared with 421 in 2000, but 3,547 persons were
killed, the highest number ever recorded. Concerted
efforts to expose terrorists were directed towards the
Al-Qaeda network, which demonstrated its effectiveness
in causing two bomb explosions at Kuta Beach
on the island of Bali, Indonesia, killing 180 and injuring
more than 300 mainly young foreign tourists.
Drugs The production and trafficking of plantderived
drugs were influenced by three developments:
(a) organised criminal groups were beginning to
exploit the Internet sufficient for the International
Narcotics Control Board to urge the creation of a UN
Convention on Cybercrime; (b) large-scale poppy
growing recommenced in Afghanistan boosting the
opium (from which heroin, morphine, codeine, and
papaverine are derived) trade; and (c) many governments
switched their enforcement resources from the
prevention of drug smuggling to combat terrorism.
Death Penalty Human-rights activists in 2002
sought to abolish the death penalty. More than 90%
of the executions in 2001 were carried out in China
(2,468), Iran (139), Saudi Arabia (79), and the USA
(66). According to Amnesty International, 84 nations
retained the option of using the death penalty whereas
the penalty had effectively been abolished in 111
countries. Recent terrorist atrocities and popular sentiment
would appear to overrule instances of flawed
convictions and international pleas for clemency in
those countries retaining the death penalty.
Bioterrorism Although a frequent topic of discussion
over many years amongst biologists and security analysts,
bioterrorism became a priority issue for most
governments in the aftermath of the September 11
attacks and growing awareness of the activities of terrorist
groups and governments bitterly hostile to western
democracies. Most efforts on combating
terrorism were focused on medicines to prevent
and/or treat a range of highly infectious diseases. In
April 2002, the Pharmaceutical Research and
Manufacturers of America reported that 256 bioterrorism-related
medicines such as vaccines, antiviral
agents, and antibiotics, were under development.
Existing antibiotics capable of countering a range of
bacterial agents (e.g. anthrax, plague, tularemia) were
being refined. Various governments made plans for
the mass vaccination of their populations, with most
emphasis on smallpox. An intriguing aspect of bioterrorism
was the announcement in July 2002 that a
poliovirus had been created over a period of two years
by J. Cello, A. Paul, and E. Wimmer from its publicdomain
genome sequence using easily available scientific
mail-order supplies. Oligonucleotides equivalent
to parts of the 7741-base RNA genome of the virus
were linked together and the DNA used as a template
for RNA synthesis. The RNA was translated to form
complete virus protein particles including fully infectious
RNA-containing forms. Sequences of a diverse
range of organisms are already in the public domain,
as are the methods to construct a few simple viruses.
Irrespective of fears about malevolent actions, there is
the distinct possibility of creating artificial organisms
to deal with intractable environmental problems, to
synthesis pharmaceuticals, and to produce valuable
polymers. Discussions on the potential for agriculturally
related bioterrorism concentrated on the spread of
livestock diseases, such as foot-and-mouth disease, and
zoonoses, with relatively little attention paid to crop
and forestry pathogens. Nonetheless, vigilance in the
monitoring of meat, livestock, and plant imports, and
monitoring of vectoring organisms are commonplace
in the MDCs and are efficient mechanisms for counteracting
both deliberate and inadvertent spread of
pests and diseases. For scientists, there is likely to be a
choice of self-regulation or governmental controls
over areas of R&D that could be misapplied by terrorists.
The US National Research Council identified
seven R&D areas of concern: rendering a vaccine ineffective;
conferring resistance to therapeutically useful
antibiotics or antiviral agents; enhancing the virulence
of pathogens; making a pathogen more contagious;
enabling a pathogen to evade detection, such as
removing markers; and making a biological agent or
toxin useable as a weapon.
Refugees and International Migration The most
authoritative source of information on the state of
refugees and international migration is the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) who estimated
that, in 2002, the number of people of concern to
the organisation was 19.8 million, compared with
about 21.8 million in 2001. The figure comprised 12
31