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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: combjelly who wrote (446436)	1/9/2009 6:26:01 PM
From: longnshort	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1576865

NATO Admits To Use Of Radioactive Munitions in Yugoslavia 5 May 2000 By Julie Hyland NATO Secretary General Lord George Robertson has finally provided limited details of the Alliance's use of depleted uranium (DU) ammunition during its war against Serbia last year. Robertson disclosed the information in a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan last month-four months after it was first requested. DU is a waste product of the process used to enrich natural uranium ore for use in nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. It is 1.7 times as dense as lead and is used in the tips of a bullet or a round to pierce armor plating. It can also be used in cruise missile nose cones and has been used in the armor of tanks. DU breaks into tiny particles on impact, which can be easily ingested and/or inhaled. Numerous studies have linked DU ammunition to the increase of cancer in Iraq, following the 1991 Gulf War, and to the number of army personnel in the US and the UK suffering from "Gulf War Syndrome". Annan had requested detailed information on NATO's use of DU during its 78-day bombardment of Yugoslavia, following a UN investigation by the Balkan Task Force (BTF). The results of the BTF investigation-which included members from the World Health Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Swedish Radiation Protection Institute-were reported last October. Investigators concentrated on four environmental "hot-spots" in Kosovo-Pancevo, Kragujevac, Novi Sad and Bor-but complained that the lack of official confirmation from NATO of its use of DU "during the Kosovo conflict distorted the prerequisites for the group's work". The report concluded that whilst the Kosovo conflict did not cause an environmental catastrophe for the whole of the Balkan region, pollution at the four spots investigated was "serious and poses a threat to human health". It urged an investigation into the impact of DU ammunition on human health. Robertson wrote that the United States Air Force A-10 "tankbuster" aircraft had concentrated their operations "in an area west of the Pec-Dakovica-Prizren highway, in the area surrounding Klina, in the area around Prizren, and in an area to the north of a line joining Suva Reka and Urosevac". He added, "However, many missions using DU also took place outside these areas." The UN Environmental Programme (UNep) complained that "the information provided [by Robertson] is not of sufficient detail to facilitate an accurate field assessment of the environmental and human health consequences of its use at the present time". This meant it was not possible "to comprehensively carry out an objective and scientifically based environmental and human health impact assessment in Kosovo". converge.org.nz

To: combjelly who wrote (446436)	1/9/2009 6:27:35 PM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 1576865

Return to Kosovo: US `lost count of uranium shells fired in Kosovo' AMERICAN AIRCRAFT used so much depleted uranium ammunition during the Nato bombardment of Serbia that US officials are now claiming - to the disbelief of European bomb disposal officers - that they have no idea how many locations may be contaminated by the radioactive dust left behind by their weapons. British and other ordnance officers ordered to defuse live ammunition in Kosovo have been fobbed off by the US military with "security" objections - and then with statements that no record was kept of depleted uranium (DU) munitions used in the Kosovo war. independent.co.uk