The Deadly Legacy of NATO Strikes in Kosovo The Independent (UK)
10/4/99
EXPOSED: THE DEADLY LEGACY OF NATO STRIKES IN KOSOVO
AFTER INSISTING throughout its air bombardment of Yugoslavia that its use of
depleted uranium munitions against Serb forces posed no hazard to human
health, Nato officers in Kosovo now admit that particles from their shells
may have contaminated soil near targets in Yugoslavia and could cause
"inhalation" problems, especially for children.
There has been a growing outcry against munitions containing depleted
uranium (DU) - a waste product of the nuclear industry - since it was used
in armour-piercing projectiles in the 1991 Gulf war. In the eight years
since, hundreds of Iraqis living near the battlefields have died from
mysterious cancers and grossly deformed children have been born to Iraqi
soldiers who fought in the war. British and American veterans suffering from
Gulf war syndrome suspect that the use of DU weapons caused their own
sickness and cancers.
In briefings to international aid workers in Pristina, one K-For officer has
warned his audience of "contaminated dust" at the scene of DU munitions
explosions and urged aid officials to stay 150 feet away from targets hit in
Nato air strikes. But non-governmental organisations have been amazed to
hear that Nato cannot - or will not - say where it used DU ordnance against
Serb forces. "There is no releasable information about where it was used and
when," a K-For spokesman told The Independent. He would give no reason for
Nato's refusal to provide these details.
Officially, K-For warns aid workers to beware of all Kosovo battle sites -
especially the danger posed by unexploded cluster bombs - but the records of
one major aid organisation in Pristina show that on 13 and 20 August a K-For
officer was twice asked by United Nations officials about the dangers of DU
projectiles fired by American A-10 Warthog ground-attack aircraft. The
officer - believed to have been British - spoke of "the danger of the spread
of contaminated dust".
The Pentagon says that in the 1991 Gulf war, more than 860,000 DU rounds
were fired by United States and - to a much lesser extent - British forces.
In following years, doctors in southern Iraq were stunned to find an
exponential increase in child cancers and deformities among families living
near the old battlefields or close to targets hit by US forces. One Iraqi
doctor's report in Basra last year recorded three babies born without heads
in August along with four with abnormally large heads, six babies born with
no heads in September and two with short limbs. In October 1998, another
baby was born without a head and four with oversize heads.
Nor were DU munitions used in Kosovo only against armour, as Nato claimed.
One aid worker found exploded DU rounds at a defence installation near
Djakovica. "There were no vehicles there, but I found the tops of the
rounds," he told me.
[Thanks to Bill Anderson] |
