CADU News 4 - Campaign Against Depleted Uranium
CADU News 4 - Campaign Against Depleted Uranium
CADU News 4 - Campaign Against Depleted Uranium
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Yugoslav study claims more DU<br />
rounds were used<br />
In a report from the Yugoslav Defence Ministry, issued<br />
last month, it was claimed that NATO in fact used far<br />
more rounds of depleted uranium than was admitted<br />
by western leaders. Gen. Slobodan Petkovic, Deputy<br />
Defence Minister, who presented the report said NATO<br />
used about 50,000 rounds containing depleted uranium,<br />
whereas the letter from NATO to the United<br />
Nations earlier this year mentioned only about 30,000<br />
(see front page).<br />
A team of Yugoslav experts undertook the study of all<br />
the environmental effects of the NATO air strikes. They<br />
say NATO warplanes used depleted uranium rounds<br />
on eight sites in Yugoslavia during the alliance’s 78-day<br />
bombing campaign last year.<br />
The locations contaminated by the depleted uranium<br />
and described in the 75-page document include six sites<br />
in Serbia and one in Montenegro, Serbia’s smaller partner<br />
in the Yugoslav federation.<br />
The eighth location is in Kosovo, Serbia’s southern<br />
province. The region is now run by U.N. and NATO<br />
peacekeepers, preventing examination of the contamination<br />
by a Yugoslav team.<br />
The Yugoslav authorities accuse Nato of polluting the<br />
soil, air and water through its attacks on oil refineries<br />
and chemical factories. Petkovic said most of the rounds<br />
were fired on Kosovo along the border with Albania.<br />
For the first time, the Yugoslav army has admitted that<br />
radioactive materials were dropped outside Kosovo as<br />
well. Petkovic said the areas had been sealed off and<br />
Yugoslav experts had detected radioactivity well above<br />
safe levels. Some of the affected areas are said to be in<br />
parts of southern Serbia, where there is a high ethnic<br />
Albanian population.<br />
Gulf War Veterans<br />
In view of the conclusion to the NATO Parliamentary<br />
Assembly Report (see page 2), which states that NATO’s<br />
zero-casualty war is ‘morally objectionable’, it is worth<br />
noting that this ‘zero’ isn’t quite what it seems. During<br />
the Gulf War of 1991, only 49 British soldiers were<br />
killed - testimony to the new era of modern warfare<br />
which relies heavily on airpower, and weapons such as<br />
DU munitions.<br />
However, since this time, over 400 Gulf War veterans<br />
have died. Only 40 out of the 35,000 British forces in<br />
the Gulf have been tested for DU poisoning; but all<br />
have tested positive. This is the new warfare - when the<br />
war is over, the killing continues. And this killing is<br />
entirely indiscriminate.<br />
VIEQUES<br />
UPDATE<br />
In the last <strong>CADU</strong><br />
news we reported<br />
on the situation in<br />
Vieques, an island<br />
in Puerto Rico,<br />
where the US Navy<br />
has been testing<br />
munitions inclusing<br />
DU for 50 years.<br />
Locals had been<br />
camped out on<br />
the testing ranges<br />
to prevent the US<br />
military from re-commencing testing there. As <strong>CADU</strong><br />
news goes to press, the latest on the situation is featured<br />
below:<br />
“On May 4 federal authorities began to arrest the<br />
people conducting Civil Disobedience in Vieques.<br />
This has been considered as an offence of the U.S.<br />
Government against the will of the people of Vieques<br />
and Puerto Rico that took back their land for one full<br />
year to prevent the bombing and shelling of the Island.<br />
The U.S. Government’s response to the demands for<br />
Human Rights of the people of Vieques was a military<br />
invasion of Vieques that was met with no resistance by<br />
the protestors that from the outset had vowed to nonviolence<br />
Civil Disobedience.<br />
The diverse group of protestors that have been arrested<br />
is composed by grassroots community leaders and<br />
members of the community at-large, religious leaders,<br />
elected officials from Puerto Rico and the US, including<br />
two members of the U.S. Congress and members<br />
of the Puerto Rican Legislature; leaders of the Puerto<br />
Rican Independence party, students, union members,<br />
and known artists. Spirits where high and protestors<br />
were calm as they promised to be back to prevent the<br />
resumption of the bombings. The struggle of David<br />
versus Goliath has reached a new stage and will surely<br />
continue and intensify until the final goal of a Navy-free<br />
Vieques is achieved.<br />
This is the moment to put forward all planned activities<br />
of protest or to plan protest events in your community.<br />
Today and tomorrow many protests will take place in<br />
U.S. and Puerto Rico.”<br />
The protesters in Vieques have called for supporters<br />
to write to Clinton to condemn the use of force by the<br />
federal authorities to remove the protesters. - President<br />
Clinton, The White House, Washington DC 20500.<br />
More information from their website on www.viequeslibre.org