[504] in peace2
Fw: Balkan Syndrome- DU in Kosovo & Iraq
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (felixauyeung@juno.com)
Tue Jan 9 11:45:34 2001
From: felixauyeung@juno.com
To: peace-list@MIT.EDU, thistle@MIT.EDU
Cc: papouse@hotmail.com, clayadler@hotmail.com, tauyeun@muse.sfusd.k12.ca.us,
wauyeung@stanford.edu, AnniqueClaussen@gmx.de, elder@sinosphere.com,
danrote@public.fhnet.cn.net, jshulman@fas.harvard.edu,
JulianeTeller@gmx.de, urbancake@hotmail.com
Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2001 00:20:57 +0800
Message-Id: <20010110.002253.-251951.2.felixauyeung@juno.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
1. International Herald Tribune:
"Furor Grows in Europe on Depleted Uranium
2. International Action Center:
"Leukemia Outbreak among Troops causes Turmoil in NATO
Ramsey Clark Demands Ban on Depleted Uranium"
* Thistle: if publishing the Iraq article, please consider placing the
Jan.07 IAC DU press release alongside.
********
Furor Grows in Europe on Depleted Uranium
Marlise Simons
New York Times Service
Saturday, January 6, 2001
UN Finds Radiation at 8 Sites in Balkans Left by U.S. Weapons
PARIS A furor continued to spread across Europe on Friday about the
noxious and even fatal effects that depleted uranium fallout may have had
on NATO peacekeepers on the ground in Bosnia and Kosovo.
.
Environmentalists and scientists called on NATO to clean up the low level
uranium, which was dispersed by U.S. weapons over large areas of Bosnia
and Kosovo, because they say the radioactive and toxic material poses
health risks to nature and human health.
.
"We found some radiation in the middle of villages where children were
playing and there were cows grazing in contaminated areas," said Pekka
Haavisto, chairman of a United Nations team that concluded a two-week
mission to the area to assess the impact of uranium tipped weapons.
.
The scientists found low-level radiation at 8 of the 11 sites sampled,
Mr. Haavisto said.
.
"We were surprised to find this a year and a half later," Mr. Haavisto
said, noting how easily the material apparently spread around. "People
had collected radioactive shards as souvenirs, and there were cows
grazing in contaminated areas, which means the contaminated stuff can get
into the milk."
.
Mr. Haavisto, who is also the former environment minister of Finland,
said that while the radiation was low-level, as expected, the debris
should be removed.
.
"We are recommending that until the cleanup starts, contaminated areas
should be clearly marked and fenced off."
.
The study by the international team is due in two months.
.
But the European Union has now ordered a formal inquiry into whether
there is a link between toxic fallout from the weapons and the recent
cancer deaths of soldiers who have returned from the Balkans.
.
Nearly a dozen soldiers, most of them young men, have died recently of
leukemia. A number of others have contracted the disease.
.
Other former peacekeepers have complained about a range of symptoms -
such as chronic fatigue and hair loss - that in the United Stated have
been associated with so-called Gulf War syndrome and which in European
are now widely described as "Balkan syndrome."
.
Tens of thousands of European soldiers who participated in Balkan
peacekeeping operations have already undergone medical screening in
France, Belgium and Canada.
.
But as the debate over the possible contamination of soldiers has become
more furious, governments across Europe have had little choice but to
commit themselves to investigations.
.
This week, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Finland, Greece and Bulgaria announced
that they too would screen all their Balkan veterans.
.
At issue is the uranium that is left over after its most active
components have been removed, mostly to use as nuclear fuel. Because of
its hard and dense properties, so-called depleted uranium is found useful
in making powerful shells that can penetrate tanks and concrete.
.
Depleted-uranium ammunition was first used in the Gulf War, when U.S.
forces fired large quantities into Iran and Kuwait. U.S. bombers also
dropped depleted-uranium ordnance in Kosovo and Bosnia.
.
Final Test Results Awaited
.
The discovery of radioactivity at the sites was a preliminary finding of
testing still under way at laboratories in Sweden, Switzerland, Italy,
Britain and Austria by the UN Environmental Program, news agencies
reported Friday, quoting a UN spokesman.
.
"The final results will only be known when the UNEP report is published
in 2001, but there is enough preliminary evidence to call for precautions
when dealing with used depleted uranium or with sites where such
ammunition might be present," said the spokesman, Stephane Dujarric.
.
The UN field mission in November visited 11 of the 112 sites identified
by NATO as having been targeted by ordnance containing depleted uranium
during the bombardment of Kosovo. The UN team collected soil, water and
vegetation samples and also conducted tests on buildings and destroyed
vehicles.
.
"For this reason, we paid special attention to the risks that uranium
toxicity might pose to the ground waters around the sites," Mr. Dujarric
added.
.
Klaus Toepfer, the environmental program's executive director, said,
"UNEP's aim is to determine whether the use of depleted uranium during
the conflict may pose health or environmental risks - either now or in
the future."
.
The UN said it also was planning a field mission to Serbia and
Montenegro.
.
Italy launched an investigation last week into a possible link between
depleted uranium munitions and about 30 cases of serious illness
involving soldiers who served in missions Kosovo and earlier in Bosnia,
12 of whom developed cancer. Five of the soldiers have died of leukemia.
.
And France said that four French soldiers who served in the Balkans
during the bombing campaign were being treated for leukemia.
.
The UN said five of the sites it analyzed were in the sector patrolled by
Italian soldiers, while the other six were in the German zone.
.
News reports said Friday that the first German soldier possibly stricken
because of time served in the Balkans had been identified.
.
The Bild newspaper, in an article to be published Saturday, said that a
25-year old soldier who had served in Mostar in Bosnia between August and
November 1997 had fallen ill with leukemia the following January.
.
(AP, Reuters)
--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: iacenter@iacenter.org
To: "Middle East List"<iacenter@iacenter.org>
Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2001 16:07:28 -0500
Subject: Balkan Syndrome- DU in Kosovo & Iraq
January 7, 2001
For Immediate release
Press Contact: Deirdre Sinnott
LEUKEMIA OUTBREAK AMONG TROOPS CAUSES TURMOIL IN NATO
RAMSEY CLARK DEMANDS BAN ON DEPLETED URANIUM
Deaths from leukemia of Italian, Belgian, Spanish, Portuguese and other
NATO troops occupying Bosnia or Kosovo and other illnesses have aroused a
storm of popular anger and concern about dangers to NATO troops stationed
in the region from the residue of depleted-uranium weapons.
By Jan. 6, French, Belgian, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and other
governments had demanded that NATO identify the areas hit in Bosnia and
Kosovo by DU shells and to clarify the dangers.
Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who is a founder of the
International Action Center, has long been an opponent of DU weapons. On
Jan. 6th he once again raised his call for a ban of the use of these
weapons that he first raised in 1996. [attached to this news release]
Since then conferences in Baghdad, Iraq, in 1999 and Gijon, Spain
in 2000 have also demanded a ban on DU use.
"This new outbreak of leukemia among European soldiers has reinforced
what we said before," said Clark from New York on Jan. 6. "Is it
acceptable by any human standards that we would permit one shell of
depleted uranium to be manufactured, to be stored, to be used? No! Stop
it now!"
Clark is leaving January 12, 2001 for the fourth trip large delegation to
Iraq the IAC has organized to challenge sanctions against that country.
He said that "along with investigating the dangers to NATO soldiers and
guarding their health, the Pentagon should be responsible for the damage
caused in Iraq and in Yugoslavia by these weapons and should clean them
up."
DU is the waste residue made from the uranium enrichment process. This
radioactive and toxic substance, 1.7 times as dense as lead, is used to
make shells that penetrate steel armor.
Many people, including physicists and physicians, believe that
uranium-oxide dust inhaled or ingested by troops in the Gulf War is the
cause, or a contributing cause, of the "Gulf-War Syndrome". Of the
approximately 697,000 U.S. troops stationed in the Gulf during the war,
over 100,000 veterans are now chronically ill. Cancer rates in southern
Iraq have increased dramatically. For example ovarian cancer in women has
increased
by sixteen fold.
The Pentagon used DU in large amounts in Iraq in 1991, in Bosnia in 1995
and in Kosovo in 1999.
In Iraq the U.S. Airforce A-10 aircraft fired approximately 940,000 30mm
rounds. In addition 14,000 large caliber DU tank rounds of 105mm were
fired. By the end of the war over 600,000 pounds of uranium from spent
rounds lay scattered across Iraq and Kuwait.
In Yugoslavia the current number of rounds that the U.S. government
admits to firing are 31,000. The UN announced on January 5 the it had
found evidence of radioactivity at 8 of the 11 sites tested in Kosovo.
The 11 sites tested were among 112 sites in Kosovo hit by DU rounds. A
United Nations report in May, 2000 warned that Kosovo's water could be
so contaminated as to be unfit to drink.
The number of targets hit by DU rounds through out the rest of Yugoslavia
was not reported. About 10,000 rounds were fired by U.S. NATO forces in
Bosnia in 1994-95.
When Italian soldier Rinaldo Colombo died last September of leukemia, it
brought the total of Italian soldiers believed to have died from "Balkans
Syndrome" to five. By January nine cases of leukemia had been reported.
In Belgium, five cases of cancer have been diagnosed in soldiers who were
on duty in the Balkans. In Spain, two soldiers have also been affected.
One died in October. Portuguese Corporal Hugo Paulino arrived home in
Lisbon from Kosovo in mid-February complaining of headaches and feeling
sick. He died on March 9 in the military hospital. According to his
father, Luis Paulino, medical examinations revealed neither meningitis
nor encephalitis. His father is certain "it was depleted uranium that
killed
him."
Investigations begin
The Spanish government has launched a study of the health of the 32,000
Spanish soldiers who have been in the Balkans. The Portuguese government
will examine 900 of its country's troops.
Belgian Defense Minister Andre Flahaut wrote a letter Dec. 29 to Bjorn
von Sydow, the defense minister of Sweden. That country takes over the
European Union presidency Jan. 1. The letter called on EU defense
ministers to discuss health problems suffered by troops stationed in
Bosnia or Kosovo.
In mid-December the Italian government launched an inquiry into why some
of their military personnel have recently died of leukemia. Defense
Minister Sergio Mattarella had affirmed that "10,800 depleted uranium
projectiles were fired by American aircraft" on Bosnia between 1994 and
1995. Without naming them explicitly, Mattarella accused the U.S.
military officials of hiding information about DU from allies.
John Catalinotto, a co-editor with Sara Flounders of the book the
International Action Center published on this topic, "Metal of Dishonor:
Depleted Uranium", commented on the new discovery of illness among
European troops. The IAC also distributes a video with the same name,
produced by the Peoples Video Network.
Catalinotto said, "It's true the Pentagon avoids publicizing details of
its use of DU weapons and has covered up the extent of DU use. That has
been its policy from the beginning. At the same time there are all sorts
of warnings in studies by the U.S. Army admitting that DU is dangerous.
"Still," he added, there can be no doubt the NATO militaries knew the
U.S. was using depleted-uranium shells, which are the usual U.S. anti-
tank weapon. In Metal of Dishonor and in news releases in April 1999 we
exposed DU's use in Bosnia and warned of its use in Kosovo. And during
the 1999 war the media prodded Pentagon spokespeople to admit publicly
that U.S. A-10 planes were firing DU shells.
"But the European population is furious that its youth are being exposed
to dangers. With the European governments, there's another story. They
knowingly took part in a dirty war of aggression against Yugoslavia. They
hoped to get some of the spoils.
"Now only Washington, Berlin and London are getting spoils," said
Catalinotto, "while Italian and Portuguese troops are patrolling
DU-polluted areas of Kosovo. And now [George W.] Bush says he wants to
pull troops out. There's a saying that 'When thieves fall out, honest
people learn the truth.' There is an opportunity to learn the truth about
DU right now."
Sara Flounders, a director of the International Action Center described
the work of the DU Education Project based at the IAC. "The DU Education
Project first helped to raise international awareness of the consequences
of the Pentagon's use of radioactive weapons in Iraq. We were the first
group to warn that the same weapons were being used in Bosnia in 1995 and
in the 78 day bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999. We contacted anti-U.S. base
movements in several countries and helped to expose the test firing and
storage of DU munitions in Okinawa, Japan, in South Korea, in Vieques,
Puerto Rico and the Israeli use of U.S. supplied, DU-armored tanks in the
West Bank and Gaza."
"In every country the U.S. government has first denied and then
stonewalled any discussion of the impact of radioactive weapons. There is
a total disregard for the consequences for their own soldiers and for the
population of the occupied country. Only an aroused mass movement has
dragged the truth out."
[Metal of Dishonor: Depleted Uranium, both book and video, can be
purchased through www.leftbooks.com]
International Action Center
39 West 14th St., #206, NY, NY 10011
212-633-6646 Fax: 212-633-2889
iacenter@iacenter.org
www.iacenter.org
Ramsey Clark, Chairperson
********
As European allies of NATO study the effects of DU weapons and grow angry
as soldiers fall sick, the world has yet to consider the civilians in
Iraq and Kosovo who were not only exposed during the wars, but have to
live with the poison on a daily basis. And in the case of Iraq, not only
did it take arm-twisting for the U.S. to admit they were using DU
weapons, not only did the U.S. deny any negative health effects from DU
and dismissed such claims as propaganda, the U.S. is still enforcing its
medical ban on Iraq as part of the sanctions, despite the alarming jump
in leukemia and cancer cases as well as birth defects in newborns.
Growing European independence from the U.S. will have a benefit in
calling the scam we have been running as hegemons, as indicated by the
recent WTO challenges of corporate subsidies. Through research conducted
by the Europeans, I hope a DU ban will be negotiated. It is indeed a
sinister plan to dump unwanted radioactive by-products from nuclear
plants to other countries through the military industrial complex as
long-term civilian weapons. With all the money we spend on scientific
and military research, this cannot be an accident. The U.S. must be held
accountable for reparations for detoxification of warfields as well as
DU-related medical costs.
________________________________________________________________
GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO!
Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less!
Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit:
http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.
