The Scotsman 08/10/04

Gulf war veterans who have genuinely suffered as a result of their military service should be compensated, an inquiry was told today.

Tory MP Michael Mates said the Government should compensate sufferers of so-called “Gulf War Syndrome” as an act of goodwill although the underlying causes of the illness remained a mystery.

The issue of Gulf War Syndrome had not been “free from the juggernaut of the Government machine”, he told Lord Lloyd of Berwick’s Gulf War Illnesses public inquiry.

“They know something is wrong but are not quite sure what... they know that there is a genuine problem here.

Mr Mates, who was chairman of the Commons Defence Select Committee during the first Gulf war, said the Government may be concerned about opening the floodgates to compensation claims if sufferers were to receive pay-outs.

But he added: “I feel very, very strongly there is a case to act when it is quite clear there is something gone wrong.

“It is not the fault of the soldiers or airmen that they are suffering from a mysterious illness. Those who have genuinely suffered should be compensated.

“It is not about setting a precedent but an act of goodwill by the Government for those who went to put themselves in harms way.”

He added: “The Government will move on this when enough pressure is exerted.”

Earlier Professor Simon Wessely, the co-director of the Kings College Gulf War Study Group, said that in his view it was more accurate to talk of a Gulf war “health effect” rather than a syndrome.

He said that symptoms of illness discovered in the veterans could be linked to the multiple vaccination programme.

But he added that any such effect could not have been predicted by the authorities.

Prof Wessely said that the type of symptoms associated with the Gulf War were similar to those suffered by soldiers of conflicts dating back to the First World War.

“We have seen these kinds of illnesses before,” he said.

“He also said potential problems could have been caused by the stress of a potential chemicals weapon attack as well as the stress faced by veterans when they returned from the conflict.

Prof Wessely cast doubt on research suggesting that soldiers could have been made unwell by the affects of low-level chemical exposure caused by the destruction of weapons’ dumps in Iraq.

He told the inquiry: “It is impossible to refute or confirm.”

The professor said many people thought the level of dose exposure was unlikely to have affected very many people.