-Caveat Lector- http://asia.yahoo.com/headlines/130899/world/934491300-90812205556.newsworld.html Alleged victim of Croatia poisoning at centre of bizarre military probe OTTAWA, Aug 12 (AFP) - A former Canadian peacekeeper, who says he became ill after handling toxins in the soil while serving in Croatia, may have been poisoned by his own subordinates, Canada's chief military investigator said in a letter made public Thursday. But Provost-Marshall Brigadier General Patricia Samson admitted that by disclosing that allegation to former warrant officer Matt Stopford she may have unwittingly compromised the military's investigation. Whether she did or didn't, Stopford says the new military probe is a load of hogwash and he wants the civilian Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to take over the probe rather than leave it to the armed forces. Stopford has already provoked one military investigation -- into why medical documents attached to the service files of hundreds of Canadian soldiers were destroyed. The documents were placed in the soldiers' files after one military doctor appeared to give credence to Stopford's claim that he was suffering from serious illnesses because of poisoning caused by bauxite and PCBs in soil used by Canadian peackeepers to fill sandbags while serving in Croatia. On Thursday, Stopford revealed that a military policeman had hand-delivered him a letter from Samson saying allegations had surfaced that Stopford's own men may have deliberately laced his coffee and food with poison. The letter dated August 11 said: "Information has recently come to light that indicates you may have been the victim of systematic ingestion of naphtha gas during your tour to Croatia in 1993." She added that the allegations claim "minute amounts (one or two drops) ... of naphtha gas were covertly put into your coffee on a regular basis by other servicemen over an extended period of time ... the majority of your time in theatre." Samson said she passed along the allegations so he could tell his doctor. She asked Stopford not to release the details because of the investigations going on into various aspects of the toxic soil controversy. But an angry Stopford said Thursday he agreed to keep the letter quiet for just one week and said he didn't believe a word of the allegations that his own troops may have been responsible. And he complained that civil police, not the military, should carry out the investigation. "I'd rather the RCMP handle the whole investigation," Stopford told journalists Thursday. "I don't have any trust in the system, period. And a lot of soldiers don't." Samson convened a hastily arranged press conference after Stopford spoke to the media and admitted she may have erred in informing Stopford of the allegations so early in the investigation. "It might make the investigation longer," she admitted. "It might turn off some leads that we hoped we would have." She said she wrote the letter of her own accord out of concern for Stopford's health. "Upon learning of the information, I was caught in an ethical and moral dilemma," she said. "The dilemma was my concern for the health of Warrant Officer Stopford and my concern for the conduct of the investigation." She said she realized the investigation could continue for months and that Stopford's health could be affected by the information the investigators gleaned. Stopford released the names of 10 other soldiers he said are sick and willing to go public with their stories, apparently from poisoning by bauxite dust, PCBs from wrecked transformers, and contaminated water. The provost marshal, however, said the new allegations of laced food and coffee "have some credence," although Stopford insisted: "I don't believe that's true -- not for a heartbeat. My soldiers did a great job over there and I'm very proud of them. "I had no cowards in my platoon and that would be a cowardly act. I guarantee they did not do this." Meanwhile, the military is carrying out medical examinations of about 3,000 Canadian troops who served in the Balkans during the early 1990s as a separate inquiry goes ahead into who ordered the shredding of documents suggesting the troops may have been poisoned while filling sandbags. -- ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. 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