15079: Arthur on US use of pepper spray in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

Charles Arthur writes:

Did the US troops in Haiti in 1994-96 use pepper gas on Haitian crowds? I ask
because there is now concern that US plans to use such gasses in Iraq are in
contravention of the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (see extract below).

I seem to remember US troops using riot-control gas in Haiti years ago - can
anyone confirm this?


Use of CS gas in Gulf is illegal, says Red Cross
By Severin Carrell
09 March 2003 - The Independent (UK)

The International Committee of the Red Cross has led protests by medical and
human rights groups at plans by the US to deploy tear gas and pepper spray to
the Gulf.

Senior officials in the ICRC, which champions legal rights for soldiers and
civilians in wartime, warn that using these "riot control agents" would
violate the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention.

Peter Herby, an arms and mines control specialist with the ICRC, said: "We
can say quite categorically that the use of chemical agents, whether riot
control agents or lethal agents, in warfare would be entirely prohibited."....

Their protests, which follow The Independent on Sunday's disclosure last week
that US troops could use CS gas and pepper spray in the Gulf, were supported
by the British Medical Association and the Geneva-based International
Commission of Jurists.