CADU News 4 - Campaign Against Depleted Uranium

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continued from front page Robertson noted in NATO’s letter that the map was not complete, saying “many missions using DU also took place outside of these areas.” He concluded: “At this moment it is impossible to state accurately every location where DU ammunition was used.” The Pentagon has tried to downplay the risks of exposure to depleted uranium dust and debris since the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Dan Fahey, of the Military Toxics Project in the US, said the map raised questions about the safety of people living in areas contaminated by depleted uranium dust and debris, as well as the health of peacekeeping troops and relief workers. “It is NATO’s responsibility, and specifically the responsibility of the United States, to go in there and start doing a clean-up, especially considering the fact we were fighting the war to protect the civilian populations and enable them to live in their land free of external harm,” Pentagon spokesman Vic Warzinski said depleted uranium contamination was “not that major of a threat” in Kosovo. For more information, try website: www.homepage.jefnet.com/gwvrl/ NATO Report on DU and Kosov@ A draft special report, from the Civilian Affairs Committee of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly released a report which makes interesting reading for those of us involved in the DU issue. Rapporteur, Volker Kroning of Germany suggests in this report that the lawfulness of the use of DU in Kosova could be challenged under International Humanitarian Law. The report, entitled ‘Kosovo and International Humanitarian Law’ examines which aspects of NATO’s intervention may have clashed with International Humanitarian Law (IHL), and what NATO members can do to improve the application and enforcement of this law by all members of the international community. The relevant section, ‘The Use of Certain Weapons’ begins by stating that “one of the most controversial aspects of NATO’s intervention in Kosovo was the use of certain types of weapons, in particular cluster bombs and depleted uranium (DU) munitions”. In relation to DU specifically, the report has the following to say:- “Depleted uranium is 0.7 times as radioactive as naturally occurring uranium, and has a half-life of 4.5 billion years. While the type of radiation emitted by depleted uranium (alpha particles) has little penetrative capabilities, DU attacks often result in the dispersion of fine radioactive dust, which, when inhaled, is likely to be trapped in the (DU is insoluble), where it can have a more serious effect. Furthermore, DU bears many of the same poisonous characteristics as other heavy metals such as lead, whose effects are known to be hazardous. So far, although scientific inquiries into the toxicity of DU are underway, there is insufficient information to conclude that DU munitions have a long-lasting nefarious effect which could affect civilian populations. Nevertheless, in light of media coverage of its use in both the Gulf War and Kosovo, of the imposition of safety guidelines issued to KFOR soldiers, and indications that DU promotes growth of cancerous cells in lab cell cultures, the lawfulness of its use could challenged under IHL. One of the chief problems is that spent DU munitions may be a source of danger long after hostilities have ceased. Should DU munitions be recognised as posing a lasting radioactive and chemical poisoning threat, their prohibition may be invoked through Article 23(a) of the 1907 Hague Convention, which prohibits the use of poison. Even if DU munitions are recognised as radioactively and/or chemically harmful, whether they qualify as poison is a debatable issue. Another issue is whether DU munitions qualify, as they do in the opinion of some, as a type of nuclear weapon. The question then is the use of nuclear weapons is permissible under IHL, although no international legal instrument specifically prohibits them. In the eyes of many legal experts, as well as the International Court of Justice, the requirement to avoid attacks of an indiscriminate nature (Art. 51/4 and 51/5 of PI) intrinsically prohibits the use of nuclear weapons, as well as the use of weapons which have lasting environmental pollution effects.” [Italics are mine] The report concludes that NATO’s reliance on air power, to fulfil its ‘zero-casualty’ aim is “if not legally, then morally objectionable”. The report goes on to quote Henry Kissinger (of all people) “What kind of humanism expresses its reluctance to suffer military casualties by devastating the civilian economy of its adversary for years to come” The full report can be seen on the following NATO website: www.naa.be/ publications/comrep/1999/as245cc-e.html By Cath at CADU
Yugoslav study claims more DU rounds were used In a report from the Yugoslav Defence Ministry, issued last month, it was claimed that NATO in fact used far more rounds of depleted uranium than was admitted by western leaders. Gen. Slobodan Petkovic, Deputy Defence Minister, who presented the report said NATO used about 50,000 rounds containing depleted uranium, whereas the letter from NATO to the United Nations earlier this year mentioned only about 30,000 (see front page). A team of Yugoslav experts undertook the study of all the environmental effects of the NATO air strikes. They say NATO warplanes used depleted uranium rounds on eight sites in Yugoslavia during the alliance’s 78-day bombing campaign last year. The locations contaminated by the depleted uranium and described in the 75-page document include six sites in Serbia and one in Montenegro, Serbia’s smaller partner in the Yugoslav federation. The eighth location is in Kosovo, Serbia’s southern province. The region is now run by U.N. and NATO peacekeepers, preventing examination of the contamination by a Yugoslav team. The Yugoslav authorities accuse Nato of polluting the soil, air and water through its attacks on oil refineries and chemical factories. Petkovic said most of the rounds were fired on Kosovo along the border with Albania. For the first time, the Yugoslav army has admitted that radioactive materials were dropped outside Kosovo as well. Petkovic said the areas had been sealed off and Yugoslav experts had detected radioactivity well above safe levels. Some of the affected areas are said to be in parts of southern Serbia, where there is a high ethnic Albanian population. Gulf War Veterans In view of the conclusion to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly Report (see page 2), which states that NATO’s zero-casualty war is ‘morally objectionable’, it is worth noting that this ‘zero’ isn’t quite what it seems. During the Gulf War of 1991, only 49 British soldiers were killed - testimony to the new era of modern warfare which relies heavily on airpower, and weapons such as DU munitions. However, since this time, over 400 Gulf War veterans have died. Only 40 out of the 35,000 British forces in the Gulf have been tested for DU poisoning; but all have tested positive. This is the new warfare - when the war is over, the killing continues. And this killing is entirely indiscriminate. VIEQUES UPDATE In the last CADU news we reported on the situation in Vieques, an island in Puerto Rico, where the US Navy has been testing munitions inclusing DU for 50 years. Locals had been camped out on the testing ranges to prevent the US military from re-commencing testing there. As CADU news goes to press, the latest on the situation is featured below: “On May 4 federal authorities began to arrest the people conducting Civil Disobedience in Vieques. This has been considered as an offence of the U.S. Government against the will of the people of Vieques and Puerto Rico that took back their land for one full year to prevent the bombing and shelling of the Island. The U.S. Government’s response to the demands for Human Rights of the people of Vieques was a military invasion of Vieques that was met with no resistance by the protestors that from the outset had vowed to nonviolence Civil Disobedience. The diverse group of protestors that have been arrested is composed by grassroots community leaders and members of the community at-large, religious leaders, elected officials from Puerto Rico and the US, including two members of the U.S. Congress and members of the Puerto Rican Legislature; leaders of the Puerto Rican Independence party, students, union members, and known artists. Spirits where high and protestors were calm as they promised to be back to prevent the resumption of the bombings. The struggle of David versus Goliath has reached a new stage and will surely continue and intensify until the final goal of a Navy-free Vieques is achieved. This is the moment to put forward all planned activities of protest or to plan protest events in your community. Today and tomorrow many protests will take place in U.S. and Puerto Rico.” The protesters in Vieques have called for supporters to write to Clinton to condemn the use of force by the federal authorities to remove the protesters. - President Clinton, The White House, Washington DC 20500. More information from their website on www.viequeslibre.org
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CADU News 4 - Campaign Against Depleted Uranium

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