10,000 DIE FROM SOVIET CHEMICALS, US ASSERTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100420035-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 21, 2011
• Sequence Number: 35
• Publication Date: March 23, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/21: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100420035-0
ARTICLE ASFEAFM
ON PAGE 1.
10,000
from
cheiiiiea
30S f0N GLOBE
23 March 1982
11 1
By William Beecher
Globe Staff
WASHINGTON - The United States accused the Sovi-
et Union yesterday of waging genocide through the use
of chemical and toxin weapons in Afghanistan, Laos
and Cambodia.
in an intelligence analysis sent to Congress. Secre-
tary of State Alexander M. Haig alleged that the Soviets,
aided by their allies in Vietnam and Laos, have for the
last seven years conducted a "genocidal campaign
against defenseless peoples."
The analysis claimed credible reports of more than
10,000 deaths in Laos. Cambodia and Afghanistan from
the use of toxins, nerve gas and other chemical weapons.
Copies of the 32-page analysis were also provided to the
UN secretary general and to every member country of
the world body.
While Haig and other State Department officials said
the purpose of making the report public was to put the
pressure of world opinion on the Soviet Union to halt
such practices, it is expected the Reagan Administration
will also seek to reconvene a meeting of the signatories to
the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention: of 1972:
The Administration would there alr,its allegations and
seek to write compliance provisions into the agreement.
Earlier this month in an interview with The Globe;
Eugene Rostow, director of the Arms Control and Disar=
mament Agency. said the Administration "almost sure-
ly" would seek such a meeting in Geneva to demand ex
planations from the Soviets both about the alleged use of
toxin weapons and about an anthrax outbreak in Sverd-
lovsk in 1979 at, a: suspected biological weapons manu-
facturing facility.^
At a State Department briefing yesterday. one offi--
vial. Gary Crocker, said a .mysterious. new agent used in
ghanistan has been-Mcknamed "the si4
lent death" because it kills without any
warning and ''freezes".its victims in
the positions,they are in when it
strikesr' ~.. , ..;~
"i bE Soviet Union and its allies are
flagrantly and repeatedly violating in,
ternational...law and, international
agreements.", asserted.Walter Stoessel.
deputy Secretary of State. _;
"Only an alert and outspoken world
community. ... can bring sufficient
pressure to bear to halt these' viola-
tions." Stoessel said. "With the publi-
cation of this report. the world commu-
nity has been alerted. The United
States will continue to be outspoken:
we are confident that other nations, as
,they recognize'the danger. will do like-
wise."
State Department officials insisted
that their report has nothing to do with
the Pentagon's efforts to gain support
fora nerve gas modernization program.
,The allegations were first investigated
and publicized. by the Carter Adminis-
tration. one official noted, and added
that the latest study is but a more rigor
ous and comprehensive analysis of in
formation that has been gathered since
1975. The months' long study was done
by the Central Intelligence Agency. the
Defense Intelligence Agency and the
State Department's Bureau of Intelli-
gence and Research.
Officials also insisted that their alle-
gations of Soviet failure to comply with
the Geneva Protocol of 1925, outlawing!
chemical and biological warfare, and of
the 1972 convention banning biological'
and toxin weapons, do not represent an
attempt to suggest that arms control
agreements should not be sought with
the Soviets because of their poor record
of compliance. They do show that scru-
pulous verification and compliance pro-
cedures are. required in any future
agreements: one official said.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/21: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100420035-0
11 US asserts