BANGKOK, Thailand -- Newly-arrived refugees from Laos, bearing ugly skin lesions on large parts of their bodies, have given grisly accounts of attacks by 'yellow rain' poison chemicals, U.S. officials said in Bangkok today.
The officials issued summaries of interviews with the refugees, and cited the graphic and detailed testimony as further evidence that Vietnamese forces are using Soviet-supplied toxic chemicals to suppress resistance in Indochina.
Both Hanoi and Moscow flatly deny the charges and accuse Washington of trying to divert attention from American use of chemicals agents in the Vietnam war.
A report that summarized the interview said four out of a group of five refugees who crossed into Thailand on April 30 'have very severe and extensive lesions covering large portions of their bodies.'
The refugees, members of the Hmong tribe from Laos, were examined by doctors who said they had not seen similar symptoms among other Hmong people who had fled into Thailand at the same crossing point, the report said.
Two refugees quoted in the report said they saw a yellowish spray descend after a plane passed overhead.
A third refugee, in a different settlement, heard a plane but did not see any poison until it appeared as yellow, sticky spots on the ground, the interview summaries said.
The interviewees reported a variety of symptoms, including vomiting, diarrhea, swollen eyes, blurred vision and stomach pains. But all developed extensive skin lesions within a few days of the attack, according to the summaries.
All three refugees were quoted as saying the chemical attacks killed a number of people and also resulted in the deaths of animals - with the unexplained exception of dogs and cats.
The United States charges that Soviet-made chemical weapons, spread in a variety of ways including by plane and by special artillery shells, have killed at least 10,000 people in Indochina and Afghanistan.
The State Department sent a report to the United Nations Thursday containing what was described as conclusive evidence of chemical warfare use in Cambodia.
The evidence was in the form of blood and urine samples containing toxins called T2 and HT2. The samples were drawn from Cambodians who came under Vietnamese artillerty fire on February 13.
