REAPING A HARVEST OF DEATH IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100140118-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 3, 2012
• Sequence Number: 118
• Publication Date: January 17, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/03: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100140118-9
ARTICLE AFFEARM ARLINGTON JOURNAL
17 JANUARY 1983
heaping a Harvest of Death
in Southeast Asia'
By PAUL ANDERSON Mycotoxins are fungal growths or molds
that occur naturally in temperate areas of
BANGKOK, Thailand the world on cereal grains left in the field
during winter and subjected to repeated
overhead was the first hint of the di- The deadly toxins produced by the fungus
saster about to befall Seng Pao are called trichothecenes, or T-2 and HT-2,
Moua and his fellow villagers. and it is these substances that the United
The day was cloudy and Seng Pao Moua, States charges are the foundation of the bio-
a 32-year-old Hmon tribesman, said later Laos chemical b=a and used in yellow rain' in
he could not see the plane as it made a single , Cambodia and Afghanistan.
pass over the (rice) paddy where he was " In his 1981 book, "Yellow Rain: A Journey
Through the Terror of Chemical Warfare
working in the highlands of central Laos
'
,
.
About five minutes later, evidence of the author-journalist Sterling Seagrave wrote of
the new poison:
plane's passage filtered to earth in the form "The most powerful Soviet su
of a yellow cloud "wet like rain but with a the o th perpoison'
ne
t
k
ll
American scientists have detected trace
elements of T-2 and HT-2 toxins in blood
and urine samples of "yellow rain" victims
and vegetation allegedly brought from the
sites of attacks.
But the problem of verification is the cru-
cial issue dividing those who profess belief in
the American charges and those who either
scoff or have yet to be convinced.
"You can take blood samples, urine sam-
ples, get HT-2 and T-2 toxins, get traces, etc,
etc, but until you have that concrete murder
weapon you're not going to convince people,
and even then you're going to. have a prob-
lem," said a Canadian diplomat involved in
,the investigation of chemical warfare
charges.
But the isolation of areas where attacks
are said to have occurred, the lack of techno-
logical sophistication of its victims and the
nature of chemical warfare itself have com-
bined to thwart investigators seeking hard
evidence.
a
was
r
rrrg so many people in
different feeling."
Laos and Afghanistan, remained to be posy )
The sticky yellow substance clung to ev- tively identified, but it appeared to be a
erything it touched and "felt like chillies" on compound of T-2 toxin drawn from groups
the skin. It later dried to a yellow powder. of poisonous fungus that have plagued Rus-
Seng Pao Moua told officials investigating sia for centuries.
reports of chemical warfare that he did not "It is one of the grimmest killers that the
know what was in the "yellow rain" that fell world has yet seen - a biological poison ae-
on his mountain villa#e about 75 miles parently modified in the laboratory to speed
northeast of the Lao capital of Vientiane on its intake, taken combined with related bio-
April 3,1982.. toxins to enhance its potency. _" '
What he does know is that more than a Although the substances allegedly in-
dozen villagers died following the incident, volved in an untold number of deaths among
along with many pigs, chickens and edible the Hmong of Laos, Cambodian guerrillas
plants. He himself became violently ill for a and Afghan rebels have been tentatively
month. identified, there is little solid evidence of
The events described by Seng Pao Moua their use as weapons and even less proof of
Soviet involvement
and others who hav
fl
d L
f
h
e
e
aos
or t
e safety
of refugee camps in northern Thailand are
part of a growing body of evidence suggest-
repeated chemical attacks against the
gong hill tribe people of Laos.
The reports, combined with similar ones
'from Cambodia and Afghanistan, have led
the United States to charge that the Soviet
-Union and its client states in Asia are wag-
' ing chemical and biological warfare against
unsophisticated and unprotected people in
remote areas of the world.
-'The Soviets are using the chemicals
themselves to fight Moslem insurgents bat-
tling Moscow's 105,000 occupation troops in
Afghanistan, the Americans charge.
: In Indochina, Washington says, the Rus-
sians have given the chemicals to the Viet-
namese for use against Cambodian rebels
and to the Communist Pathet Lao regime in
Vientiane to help subdue the fiercely anti-
communist Hmong.
Washington also charges that Moscow
and its allies have introduced deadly poisons
called mycotoxins which bring gruesome
and agonizing deaths to their victims.
of certain enzymes, these clues may just as
easily be missing, dissipated by wind or rain,
metabolized by the body, or diminished by
the passage of minutes or hours.
"The special appeal of the third-genera-
tion killing agents is that they leave no de-
tectable traces at all."
Asked what he thought would provide
sufficient proof of the use of mycotoxins, the
Canadian diplomat said. "What the Ameri-
cans need to prove this is for a pilot flying
one of those planes equipped with spray
nozzles to defect to Thailand with tanks full
of yellow rain. An less than that I'm
not sure people will believe."
. According to reports, several types of
chemical agents have been used as well as
various delivery systems for the poisons.
Accounts of witnesses and victims led
American investigators to conclude that at
least four different agents had been used
against the Hmong and Cambodian rebels
- nerve gas, irritants such as phosgene and
mustard gas, tear gas and other non-lethal
riot control agents, and the "yellow rain"
substance, later identified as mycotoxins.
These were delivered as gas in many col-
ors - yellow, white, black, red and blue -
usually by spraying from an airplane or heli-
copter or through artillery and mortar
rounds, the U.S. reports said.
Some victims' symptoms indicated mix-
tures of various agents were used on occa-
sion, making identification of the mysteri-
ous yellow agent more difficult.
The identification of mycotoxins as the
major component of "yellow rain" was made
originally by scientists comparing the symp-
toms of victims with the known effects of
the poison on humans and animals, an
American report stated. -
If confirmed, these attacks mould be the
first known use of mycotoxins in chemical
warfare, which previously was "limited" to
nerve agents and irritants such as mustard
g~-
,COi~.ft7N Im'
"With chemical warfare, there is rarely
any trace," Seagrave said in his book.
"There are few equivalents to the smoking
gun or tire tracks.
"Although traces of chemir?1c ti,e
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/03: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100140118-9
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/03: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100140118-9
In an interview with Canadian scientists
and diplomats at the Ban Vinai refugee
camp in Thailand, Seng Pao Moua de-
scribed
the effects of "yellow rain."
"Seng Pao Moua vomited with blood for
about one hour (after the chemical spray-
ing)," the Canadian report said. "He felt
nauseous, had chest pains and breathing dif-
ficulties, swollen eyes and a runny nose.
"He experienced blurred vision and could
not see objects up close. His throat was sore
enough that he could not drink or eat. Seng
Pao Moua felt deaf for one night and contin-
ued to have diarrhea with blood for six days.
"His wife and four children exhibited the
same general symptoms but remained in
Laos. Seng Pao Moua thought the reason he
did not die was that he smoked a great deal
of opium.
"Seng Pao Moua personally saw about 16
people die in his village. They either died
the night of the attack or during the follow-
ing. day. The first to die were babies, then
middle-aged adults and some very old per-
sons. All had vomited with blood and had di-
arrhea with blood. There were many other
affected villagers who did not die.
"At the time of interview (more than a
month after the attack), Seng Pao Moua
still had difficulty in breathing and had a
painful chest. His skin in the affected areas
was very itchy and sometimes felt as if it
were burning. He still felt tired and had no
appetite.of
* tit
The United States has issued two major
reports on chemical warfare since former
Secretary of State Alexander Haig charged
in a Sept.13,1981 Berlin speech that Wash-
ington had physical evidence of the use of le-
thal mycotoxins in Southeast Asia.
The first report, issued last March 22, said
eyewitness testimony, scientific evidence
and intelligence reports "provide compelling
evidence that tens of thousands of unsophis-
ticated and defenseless peoples have for a
period of years been subjected to a cam-
paign of chemical attacks.
A second report in November included ev-
idence of mycotoxin contamination of two
Soviet-made gas masks from Afghanistan
and the presence of trace elements of T-2
toxins in the blood of Khmer soldiers report-
edly killed in "yellow rain" attacks in
Cambodia.
Except for strong denials by the Soviet
Union and Vietnam, the American reports
have failed to generate an international out-
cry of any magnitude.
"I don't know why for sure," said a West-
ern diplomat in Bangkok. "Maybe the pub-
lic just gets used to this kind of thing and
there's not the same horror of chemical war-
fare that followed its first battlefield uses in
the trenches during World War L
"But -I think in many ways it has to do
with where it is taking place. It's a compli-
cated issue and it's happening far, far away
in places lots of people don't know anything
about. It's easier to ignore it."
An American source involved in compil-
ing information on chemical attacks in
Southeast Asia acknowledged there has
been little international support for the U.S.
position.
"Chemical warfare is one of those issues
that everyone doesn't want to talk about,"
he said. "We have tried to get other coun-
tries interested but response hasn't been
very good."
Paul Anderson is a reporter for United
Press k+ternational.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/03: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100140118-9