All news on this page courtesy of the The Telegraph Newspaper, London, UK

21/March/1997

MPs condemn MoD over Gulf war chemicals

By Tim Butcher

NICHOLAS Soames, the Armed Forces Minister, faced fresh calls for his resignation yesterday after a select committee report criticised the Ministry of Defence's handling of so-called Gulf war syndrome.

The report into the MoD's muddle over the exposure of troops to harmful pesticides was rushed out before the general election after the appearance before the committee of Mr Soames last month. It said: "We find it incredible that the Services did not appaDavid Clark, the shadow defence secretary, repeated his call for Mr Soames to resign and accused the minister of "making a mockery of ministerial responsibility". "It is a disgrace that Gulf war veterans, who served their country with honour and pride, haPaul Tyler, the Liberal Democrat chairman of the all-party group on organophosphates, said: "Isn't the real scandal that British Service personnel were sent to the Gulf to be exposed to lethal chemicals with no adequate protection or warnings, quite unnecMr Soames has said he will not resign because the accurate information concerning the use of organophosphates had not been deliberately withheld.

The MPs' report said that an internal MoD report into how the ministry repeatedly misinformed MPs on the exposure of troops to organophosphate pesticides contained little fresh information. "Indeed the omissions of the report are more significant than itsBut the report did not focus criticism on Mr Soames himself although it did cite his reluctance to discuss whether individual civil servants or Service personnel had broken internal disciplinary procedures. Accepting that such investigations were still su"We recommend that by Oct 1 1997 the department lays before the House or provides our successor committee with a full account (except for the identity of individuals concerned) of why Parliament was misled about the use of organophosphates in the Gulf andAn amnesty would not be welcomed by veterans' groups, who said they wanted all those responsible for the errors to be held fully accountable.

On the issue of compensation payments, the report said that no Gulf veterans had yet received any damages for the so-called syndrome although 545 awards have been made for other injuries arising out of Gulf service.

The report said there were grounds for ex gratia payments of compensation for veterans who could establish that they were exposed to organophosphates and that they were ill with otherwise unexplained ailments.