IMPACTS OF NATO'S 'HUMANITARIAN' BOMBINGS.
THE BALANCE SHEET OF DESTRUCTION IN YUGOSLAVIA.
_________________________________________________________________
By Michel Chossudovsky
Department of Economics, University of Ottawa
Ottawa, K1N6N5
Voice box: 1-613-562-5800, ext. 1415
Fax: 1-514-425-6224
E-Mail: chossudovsky@sprint.ca
- Sunday, 11 April 1999 -
* * *
Amply documented, the bombings of Yugoslavia are not
strictly aimed at military and strategic targets as claimed by
NATO. They are largely intent on destroying the country's
civilian infrastructure as well as its institutions.
According to Yugoslav sources, NATO has engaged around 600
aeroplanes of which more than 400 are combat planes. They have
flown almost 3,000 attack sorties, "with 200 in one night alone
against 150 designated targets". They have dropped thousands of
tons of explosives and have launched some 450 cruise missiles.
The intensity of the bombing using the most advanced
military technology is unprecedented in modern history. It far
surpasses the bombing raids of World War II or the Vietnam War.
The bombings have not only been directed against industrial
plants, airports, electricity and telecommunications facilities,
railways, bridges and fuel depots, they have also targeted
schools, health clinics, day care centres, government buildings,
churches, museums, monasteries and historical landmarks.
INFRASTRUCTURE AND INDUSTRY
According to Yugoslav sources: "road and railway networks,
especially road and rail bridges, most of which were destroyed or
damaged beyond repair, suffered extensive destruction". Several
thousand industrial facilities have been destroyed or damaged
with the consequence of paralysing the production of consumer
goods. According to Yugoslav sources, "[B]y totally destroying
business facilities across the country, 500,000 workers were left
jobless, and 2 million citizens without any source of income and
possibility to ensure minimum living conditions". Western
estimates as to the destruction of property in Yugoslavia stand
at more than US$ 100 billion.
BOMBING OF URBAN AND RURAL RESIDENTIAL AREAS
Villages with no visible military or strategic structures
have been bombed. Described as "collateral damage", residential
areas in all major cities. The downtown area of Pristina (which
includes apartment buildings and private dwellings) has been
destroyed. Central-downtown Belgrade -- including government
buildings -- have been hit with cluster bombs and there are
massive flames emanating from the destruction. According to the
International Center for Peace and Justice (ICPJ):
"No city or town in Yugoslavia is being spared. There are
untold civilian casualties. The beautiful capital city of
Belgrade is in flames and fumes from a destroyed chemical plant
are making it necessary to use gas masks".
CIVILIAN CASUALTIES
Both the Yugoslavia authorities and NATO have downplayed the
number of civilian casualties. The evidence amply confirms that
NATO has created a humanitarian catastrophe. The bombings are
largely responsible for driving people from their homes. The
bombings have killed people regardless of their nationality or
religion. In Kosovo, civilian casualties affect all ethnic
groups. According to a report of the Decany Monastery in Kosovo
received in the first week of the bombing:
"Last night a cruise missile hit the old town in Djakovica,
mostly inhabited by Albanians, and made a great fire in which
several Albanian houses were destroyed ... In short, NATO attacks
are nothing but barbarous aggression which affects mostly the
innocent civilian population, both Serb and Albanian.
THE DANGERS OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINATION
Refineries and warehouses storing liquid raw materials and
chemicals have been hit causing environmental contamination. The
latter have massively exposed the civilian population to the
emission of poisonous gases. NATO air strikes on the chemical
industry is intent on creating an environmental disaster, "which
is something not even Adolf Hitler did during World War II."
According to the Serbian Minister for Environmental Protection
Branislav Blazic, "the aggressors were lying when they said they
would hit only military targets and would observe international
conventions, because they are using illegal weapons such as
cluster bombs, attacking civilian targets and trying to provoke
an environmental disaster". A report by NBC TV confirms that NATO
has bombed a the pharmaceutical complex of Galenika, the largest
medicine factory in Yugoslavia located in the suburbs of
Belgrade. The fumes from this explosion have serious
environmental implications. "The population is asked to wear gas
masks that in fact nobody [has]."
Supply with drinking water for the inhabitants of Belgrade
is also getting difficult after the drinking water facility at
Zarkovo was bombed.
HOSPITALS AND SCHOOLS
NATO has targeted many hospitals and health-care
institutions, which have been partially damaged or totally
destroyed. These include 13 of the country's major hospitals.
More than 150 schools (including pre-primary day care centres)
have been damaged or destroyed. According to Yugoslav sources,
more than 800,000 pupils and students do not attend schools in
the wake of the war destruction. There is almost no pre-school
institutions (nurseries and day-care centres) which are
operational.
CHURCHES, MONASTERIES AND HISTORICAL LANDMARKS
NATO has also systematically targeted churches, monasteries,
museums, public monuments and historical landmarks.
"The targets of the attacks on historical and cultural
landmarks have included the Gracanica monastery, dating back to
the 14th century, the Pec Patriarchate (13th century), the
Rakovica monastery and the Petrovarardin Fortress, which are
testimony to the foundations of the European civilization, are in
all world encyclopedias and on the UNESCO World Heritage list".
THE USE OF WEAPONS BANNED BY INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION
The NATO bombings have also used of weapons banned by
international conventions. Amply documented by scientific
reports, the cruise missiles utilize depleted uranium "highly
toxic to humans, both chemically as a heavy metal and
radiologically as an alpha particle emitter". Since the Gulf War,
depleted uranium (DU) has been a substitute for lead in bullets
and missiles. According to scientists "it is most likely a major
contributor to the Gulf War Syndrome experienced both by the
veterans and the people of Iraq". According radiobiologist Dr.
Rosalie Bertell, president of the International Institute of
Concern for Public Health:
"When used in war, the depleted uranium (DU) bursts into
flame [and] releasing a deadly radioactive aerosol of uranium,
unlike anything seen before. It can kill everyone in a tank. This
ceramic aerosol is much lighter than uranium dust. It can travel
in air tens of kilometres from the point of release, or be
stirred up in dust and resuspended in air with wind or human
movement. It is very small and can be breathed in by anyone: a
baby, pregnant woman, the elderly, the sick. This radioactive
ceramic can stay deep in the lungs for years, irradiating the
tissue with powerful alpha particles within about a 30 micron
sphere, causing emphysema and/or fibrosis. The ceramic can also
be swallowed and do damage to the gastro-intestinal tract. In
time, it penetrates the lung tissue and enters into the blood
stream. ...It can also initiate cancer or promote cancers which
have been initiated by other cancinogens".
According to Paul Sullivan, executive director of the
National Gulf War Resource Center:
"In Yugoslavia, it's expected that depleted uranium will be
fired in agricultural areas, places where livestock graze and
where crops are grown, thereby introducing the spectre of
possible contamination of the food chain."
The New York based International Action Center called the
Pentagon's decision to use the A-10 "Warthog" jets against
targets in Serbia "a danger to the people and environment of the
entire Balkans". (Truth in Media, 10 April 1999). In this regard,
a report in from Greece:
"...registered an increase in levels of toxic substances in
the atmosphere of Greece, and said that Albania, Macedonia,
Italy, Austria and Hungary all face a potential threat to human
health as a result of NATO's bombing of Serbia, which includes
the use of radioactive depleted uranium shells". (see Truth in
Media, 10 April 1999).
THE PLIGHT OF THE REFUGEES
What is not conveyed by the international media, is that
people of all ethnic origins including ethnic Albanians, Serbs
and other ethnic groups are leaving Kosovo largely as a result of
the bombing.
There are reports that ethnic Albanians have left Kosovo for
Belgrade where they have relatives. There are 100,000 ethnic
Albanians in Belgrade. The press has confirmed movements of
ethnic Albanians to Montenegro. Montenegro has been portrayed as
a separate country, as a safe-haven against the Serbs. The fact
of the matter is that Montenegro is part of Yugoslavia.
* * *
A frequent contributor to Antifa Info-Bulletin, Michel
Chossudovsky is Professor of Economics at the University of
Ottawa and author of The Globalisation of Poverty, Impacts
of IMF and World Bank Reforms, Third World Network, Penang
and Zed Books, London, 1997.
|
