‘U.S.-made chemicals in war’ claim Afghans

Press, 15 April 1980, Page 12

‘U.S.-made chemicals in war’ claim Afghans

NZPA-Reuter Moscow The Afghan Government said yesterday that it was in possession of United Statesmanufactured chemical weapons seized from Muslim rebels and is ready to analyse them with competent representatives of the world community, Tass news agency has reported. The Afghan statement described the weapons as chemical hand grenades manufactured in the United States that had been seized from a diversionist gang sent into Afghanistan from abroad and crushed last March 25 in Herat province. The statement said there had been foreign military men in the gang. Afghanistan, it said, was also prepared to’ analyse, again with competent representatives of the world community, the circumstances surrounding the use of such weapons by mercenary gangs sent into Afghanistan from abroad. Describing as an infamous libel charges that Soviet forces in Afghanistan were using chemical weapons, the statement said it was the imperialist circles of the United States and Britain, and the Chinese hegemdnists and their acolytes in other countries, that had used such weapons in Afghanistan. A report from London says Muslims from all over the world have called for an urgent investigation into the denial of human rights to Muslim minorities in the Soviet Union. The “International Conference on Muslim Minorities,” in a. communique issued after a two-day meeting, said: “This conference urges the International Commission on Muslim Minorities to give utmost priority to a proper investigation of the deplorable and inhuman acts being perpetrated in Soviet Russia against its Muslim minorities.”