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The Hague Agenda for Peace and Justice for the 21st Century
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This article, by Simon Mitchell, appeared (in part) in the Big Issue
South
West in the UK.
KOSOVO - THE POISONED PRIZE? （部分カット)
Nikola Bozinovic is a student leader from Nis, 240km from Belgrade,
who has
consistently opposed the Milosovic regime. He claims to have reliable
evidence that DU was fired in Vranje, 30km from the Macedonian border,
around April 16. Two fragmented and two complete rounds have been tested
at
the Nis Institute for Radiology and found to contain U-238. Bozinovic
told
The Big Issue he is convinced that these are not DU rounds kept over
from
the 1995 Bosnian war, as the Yugoslav authorities are trying to keep
the
find quiet and are not using it as propaganda. (The Serbs also have
DU
capabilities and if a land war does ensue, they will more than likely
wish
to use it themselves.) 'In ten, fifty or 2000 years, there will be
no
Albanian, Kosovar or Serbian problem,' says Bozinovic. 'It will be
the
earth's problem. The quality of food, water and air will be damaged
for
billions of years. Neighbouring countries' governments are supporting
the
strikes, not aware what risk it poses to their people also. Nato said
they
are not at war with the people of Serbia. Why are they killing us then,
and
our unborn children?'
German Epidemiologist Professor Siegwort-Horst Gunther carried out a
five
year study into the effects of DU on the Iraqi population. He found
'a
considerable increase in infectious diseases caused by severe
immunodeficiencies; AIDS like syndromes; massive herpes and zoster
infections; a hitherto unknown syndrome caused by renal and hepatic
dysfunctions; leukaemia, aplastic anaemia and malignant neoplasms and
congenital deformities caused by genetic defects in both people and
animals'. Gunther backs up his findings with numerous photographs of
severely disfigured children and livestock. Children were particularly
badly
affected. The DU 'silver bullets' became collectable toys. 'I saw children
play with projectiles,' says Gunther. 'One of them died from leukaemia.'
An American study carried out in 1993 claimed around 50,000 Iraqi children
died in the first eight months after the war as a consequence of DU
contamination. A separate study of DU effects on Iraqi military personel
reported a five fold increase in lymphomas, leukaemias and brain cancers,
seven years on. Both British and American militaries have conducted
tests on
DU contamination, but neither will release their findings.
Dr Hari Sharma from the University of Waterloo in Toronto, recently
finished
testing forty Gulf War Veterans from four different countries, most
of whom
are still excreting DU in their urine eight years after the war. 'If
eight
people's lungs are exposed to a gram of DU, one of them will suffer
some
type of fatal cancer. It's a lottery,' says Sharma.
During the Gulf war thousands of allied troops were exposed to DU in
both
combat and rescue missions. While reclaiming allied armaments shot
with
'friendly fire' soldiers often worked in shorts and t-shirts. None
were
informed of the risks of DU, or offered protective clothing. Scientists
who
come into contact with the metal wear full body 'space suits' and
respiratory protecters.
Dr Doug Rokke was responsible for recommending medical care for allied
DU
casualties in the Gulf and later became DU project director for the
US
Department of Defence (DOD) 1994-5. Rokke is one of only fifty Gulf
veterans
who are receiving any treatment from the US government.
He is incensed that 'adequate medical care has never been provided
(By DOD
or MOD) and that mandated educational, training and operational guidelines
have never been fully implemented'.
With others he is calling for a global ban on DU munitions. If used
in
Kosovo, Rokke insists the necessary medical care and environmental
clean up
must be provided including radiation screening of possible casualties
and
the immediate sealing off of a 25 meter area around the destroyed item
until
all contaminated DU penetrators, fragments and dust is removed. Bearing
in
mind the allies fired over 900,000 DU rounds in the Gulf, that is quite
some
task.
Reluctantly paying for the bombing of Yugoslavia, the US congress has
said
it does not intend to pay for the clean up of the country afterwards.
Similarly there are no plans to decontaminate Iraq.
Rokke says British and American governments have failed to be honest
with
Gulf War veterans about DU. A view shared by MP Tony Benn who is convinced
the Americans have already used DU in Kosovo. Benn was a member of
the 1979
Labour cabinet that agreed to accept DU bullets into British arsenals.
'We
were told that the Americans wanted us to have them and the Germans
had
agreed to have them, so the meeting agreed to have them. I argued that
it
crossed the line from conventional to nuclear weapons, and I was voted
down.
I was the only one.'
It is not as though allied governments were unaware of the dangers.
In July
1990, before any DU was fired in the Gulf, the Science and Applications
International Corporation (SCIAC) reported: 'Short term effects of
high
doses [of DU] can result in death, while long term effects of low doses
have
been implicated in cancer.' It goes on to warn that long term health
risks
may make DU unacceptable as a weapon. Not something that appeared to
concern
allied commanders sending troops into a toxic and radioactive war zone.
In a
document from 1993 entitled 'Operation Desert Storm: Army Not Adequately
Prepared to Deal With Depleted Uranium Contamination,' the US
General
Accounting Office wrote: 'Army officials believe that DU protective
methods
can be ignored during battle because DU-related health risks are greatly
outweighed by the risks of combat.'
However, this time (in Kosovo) the effects of DU are known and the pressure
is on Nato from a host of organisations opposed to these weapons. Questions
have been asked in Parliament and a resolution banning the use of DU
in
warfare has been presented to a United Nations human rights forum in
Geneva.
This week DU is under discussion at the international Hague Appeal for
Peace
Conference. But this may be too little too late for Nikola Bozinovic
whose
hands shake as he e-mails pleas for help across the planet. 'All the
work
towards a ban
on DU will be useless, at least from our point of view, if they poison
our
country for billions of years to come. Until then, we are waiting for
more
bombs to come, more people to die. Please help us. Stop the war. Stop
the
bombing.'
Contact: Campaign Against Depleted Uranium 0161 834 8301 gmdcnd@gn.apc.org;
Military Toxins Project, mtpdu@ime.net; Swords to Ploughshares,
duweapons@hotmail.com. See DULink at www.globaldialog.com/~kornkven/
and
www.haguepeace.org
*The UK Atomic Energy Authority calculated that there is enough depleted
uranium in Iraq to cause 500,000 potential deaths.
*DU penetrators have a radioactivity of 200mrem/hour, delivering the
equivalent radiation dose of nearly 30 chest x-rays in an hour.
*On February 8 a fire occured at a Royal Ordnance Speciality Metals
factory
at Featherstone in Staffordshire where they make DU rounds. Residents
were
advised to stay indoors and close their windows.
*14 countries worldwide have DU weapons capabilities.
*DU is test fired in Scotland and the Solway Firth, where only a dozen
of
the 1,000 plus DU projectiles fired have been recovered.
*The US has around half a million tons of DU in storage.
*Over past six months The US has exported at least 2,240 tons of DU
to
France and Great Britain, primarily for the
manufacture of munitions (figs from Nuclear Regulatory Commission).
The
shipments consist of 2000 tons of uranium metal from American co. Nuclear
Metals Inc. and two shipments of 158.76 tons of uranium tetrafluoride
to
British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. (BNFL) BNFL is importing the depleted uranium
for
the manufacture of 120mm
anti-tank projectiles for British tanks.
*During the 1982 Falklands War, British war ships had a weapons system
with
uranium munitions, the M15 Phalanx.
*When Professor S.H. Gunther produced his evidence about the effects
of DU
in Germany he was fined 3,000 deutchmarks for violating an Atomic Energy
Law. (By bringing a DU round to Berlin for testing). His pension was
stopped, his passport conviscated and his post opened and his phone
tapped.
He was later arrested and imprisoned in Kiel. His treatment is such
that he
was led to compare it to the time he spent detained by the Gestapo
during
World War II.
* When the Chief of Nuclear Medicine of America's Veteran's Administration
Authority, Professor Asaf Durakovic, wrote to President Clinton asking
for
an inquiry into DU contamination in 1997, he was fired. Out of 24 Gulf
veterans referred to Durakovic two are dead and 12 are seriously ill.
*The Faculty of Natural Sciences at Skopje, Macedonia have recorded
radioactivity levels three times normal in recent days.
*British Challenger and US M1A1 tanks are DU armour plated and fire
DU. If
a ground invasion occurs both are likely to be deployed. British Harriers
have DU capability and it has been reported that Tomahawk cruise missiles
have a DU penetrating rod.
* The Geneva convention banned the targetting of civilians in warfare.
By
their nature DU weapons, if immediate decontamination does not occur,
kill
civilians.
* Tungsten can be used as an alternative armoured piercing bullet,
though at
much higher cost. The US Navy have adopted this.
* A training video and manual, on how to avoid DU contamination, produced
for US army soldiers in 1995 sat on shelves until 1997. Even today
only a
fraction of service men and women have seen them.
*More than 400 people living around nuclear weapons plants and research
facilities around the US are suffering from unexplained respiratory,
neurological and immune system problems.
-------------------------------------
Dick Ochs
rochs@mail.bcpl.lib.md.us
http://www.bcpl.lib.md.us/~rochs
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