Letter: Letters: On the spot

From A. HEYNDRICKX

Re ‘Iraq caught out over nerve gas attack’ (This Week, 1 May): The Chemical
and Biological Defence Establishment at Porton Down, Wiltshire, where the
latest samples were analysed says: ‘This is the first time, to our
knowledge, that a suspected use of nerve agent has been corroborated by the
analysis of environmental residues’.

I completely disagree. Since 1984, my colleagues and I have analysed
environmental samples and human autopsy material that we took ourselves at
the battlefields of Cambodia, the Iran-Iraq war and Angola.

More than one thousand Iranian villages were bombed with war gases by Iraq.
Nobody from the Western world wants to speak about it. The same is true for
mothers and children chemically bombed by Luanda (Angola) in UNITA-held
territory. Where are the results of these samples that Porton Down received?
We do the analysis in two hours. Why does it take months for Porton Down?

We were at Halabja a few days after the bombing, took samples and analysed
them. Videos and reports are available. The UN was not there. Iraq was
never condemned by the UN for using chemical and biological warfare against
Iran. It is only after Kuwait that people now speak about it.

Thanks for confirming our results.

A. Heyndrickx
Ghent, Belgium