仲田です。
劣化ウラン問題関連情報です。
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野村修身です。
このお知らせは、"ducj","aml","NoNuke","e-forum"に投稿します。
転載を歓迎致します。
ダブッテ見ている方には、申し訳ありません。
友人から送られた沖縄の劣化ウラン関連情報ですが、アメリカ軍からということ
がオドロキです。日本のマスコミの方の奮起をお願いしたいです。
Forwarded by NOMURA; Osami <peace-st@jca.apc.org>
---------------- Original message follows ----------------
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2001 00:41:38 +0900
Subject: 劣化ウラン弾問題、沖縄の目
--
ヨーロッパが劣化ウラン弾で大騒ぎするのは「地元」として当然。しかし９７
年に日本で使われていることが発覚したウラン弾、あの鳥島はどうなったのか。
どうして日本で何の報道もないのか。
「那覇発−バルカンで使用された放射性弾頭に関する騒ぎは、ここ沖縄の住民
に奇異の念を抱かせている。なぜ我々の劣化ウラン弾に関する苦情が無視され続
けているのか」・・・・という書き出しで始まる以下の記事。これを書いている
のが、日本の新聞でなく、沖縄の地元紙でもない。太平洋米軍の（準）機関紙で
あることが我々に「奇異の念を抱かせる」。
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Stars & Stripes Tuesday, January 16, 2001
Okinawans have been concerned about depleted uranium ammo
By David Allen
Okinawa bureau chief
NAHA The controversy over radioactive ammunition used
in the Balkans has some Okinawans wondering why their
complaints about depleted uranium tipped shells are being
neglected.
In 1997, Marine AV-8B Harriers mistakenly fired 1,520 DU
bullets on a gunnery range in Tori Shima, an uninhabited island
62 miles west of the main island of Okinawa. Prefectural
officials were outraged that it took the United States a year to
report the incident. Okinawa demanded immediate
environmental studies.
"The survey on the impact of depleted uranium on the
natural environment at Tori Shima has been under way since
the year depleted uranium rounds were found on the island,"
said Yoshihito Yamada, director of the prefectural government’
s U.S. Military Affairs Office. "The survey will be continued
throughout the next fiscal year. According to investigative
reports released by the national government so far, no damage
to the environment has been found."
He said Tokyo has not responded to Okinawa’s request that
residents of a nearby island also be examined.
"(With) the reports of the Balkans syndrome in our mind, we
will again request the national government conduct health
examinations on the residents of Kume Jima, the nearest
inhabited island, as well as continued environmental study of
the island and vicinity," Yamada said.
The DU rounds were used extensively in Kosovo in 1999.
Depleted uranium is a heavy metal that has lower radioactivity
than ordinary uranium. Its high density makes it ideal for
piercing thick tank armor.
For years the Pentagon has denied that handling DU-rounds
could result in health problems, but a rash of unexplained
cancer among Italian veterans of NATO’s bombing campaign
has sparked calls to ban the weapon.
Yamada has not made any new requests for environmental
and health tests since the Balkan illnesses have been reported.
He said the government still has no answers concerning the
some 500 DU shell casings found in June in a Nishihara
junkyard in southern Japan.
The casings were discovered in barrels bought by a junk
dealer about six years ago from the U.S. military as scrap metal.
"But how they found their way to the junk dealer is still not
clear," Yamada said. "We don’t know where the bullets had
been fired, although there is some speculation they were used
at Tori Shima. But that is not for sure.
"We still hold a suspicion that they might have been used
elsewhere. We need to find out where these bullets were from."
Chiyomi Sumida contributed to this report.
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仲田博康
nakada_h@jca.apc.org