UN shuns Soviet protest on chemical-war debate

The United Nations, sweeping aside Soviet objections, decided to hold a full General Assembly debate on American charges of Russian chemical warfare in Cambodia and Afghanistan.

The United States proposed the debate on the use of lethal chemical weapons against rebels fighting Soviet-backed regimes, requesting that a group of experts investigate the use of biological weapons and question eyewitnesses in refugee camps. The move was strongly opposed by the Soviet Union, which charged it was part of an American effort to divert attention from disarmament.