§ Lord Hyltonasked Her Majesty's Government:
What evidence they have seen, if any, that poison gas or biological weapons have been used against guerrilla forces and civilians in Laos, Cambodia and Afghanistan; and whether they will make a statement, if it seems that the 1925 Geneva Protocol and the Biological Weapons Convention of 1972 have been contravened.
§ Lord BelsteadCareful and independent study of information released to us by the United States Government has now led us to believe that chemical weapons, probably including mycotoxins, have been used in South-East Asia. We are continuing to look closely at the extremely disturbing American reports of chemical warfare in Afghanistan.
The use of chemical weapons is a flagrant contradiction of the civilised standards reflected in the 1925 Protocol. Moreover, the use of toxins in South-East Asia would represent a breach of the 1972 Convention banning biological and toxin weapons.