‘Chemical attacks kill 3000’

Press, 10 March 1982, Page 9

‘Chemical attacks kill 3000’

NZPA-Reuter Washington The American Deputy Secretary of State (Mr Walter Stoessel) said yesterday that more than 3000 people were reported to have been killed in Afghanistan in Soviet chemical weapons attacks. ' Mr Stoessel also told a Senate foreign relations subcommittee that Soviet troops had “engaged in wanton looting and killing” in Kandahar, the second largest Afghan city, and there were reports of torture by Soviet and Afghan troops. “As a result of chemical attacks, 3042 deaths attributed to 47 separate incidents between the summer of 1979 and the summer of 1981 have been reported,” he said. “Analysis of all the information available leads us to conclude that attacks have been conducted,” he said, adding that substances used included irritants, incapacitants. nerve agents, phosgene, and perhaps mycotoxins and mustards. He said Afghan military defectors had provided information on Soviet use of chemical weapons containing deadly nerve agents, including where they were stockpiled and when and where they had been used.