POISONOUS CHEMICALS Complaint Made By Cambodia

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31907, 7 February 1969, Page 11

POISONOUS CHEMICALS Complaint Made By Cambodia

r.V.Z P.A.-Rcutcr —Copgright) NEW YORK, February 6. Cambodia yesterday accused South Vietnamese-United States forces of spraying poisonous chemicals over its territory, causing serious health damage to civilians and destroying crops.

In a letter to the Security Council, the Cambodian Government reported numerous border incidents early last month and called on the United States and South Vietnamese Governments to put an end to “such acts and compensate the victims.” It asserted that two civilians had died and eight others had been wounded as a result of the incidents.

The letter alleged that on January 4, three helicopters of the United States-South Vietnamese forces had scattered over the border province of Svay Rieng “a poisonous powder which fell as a result of the prevailing wind near the Cambodian villages of Taboth and Prey Chidaun, causing serious health damage to the inhabitants. two of whom had to be hospitalised.”

The Cambodian authorities also reported seven border clashes between January 6 and January 13. They claimed that in one incident on January 6, a United States-South Vietnamese helicopter violating Cambodian air space over Mondulkiri Province had been shot down and its wreckage taken to Phom-Penh. The Government of Cambodia had protested vigorously against “the hostile acts committed by the United States-South Vietnamese forces against the peaceful inhabitants and security forces of Cambodia,” the letter said.