LA JUGOSLAVIA NELLA NATO


Il Ministro degli Esteri della RFJ Goran Svilanovic, gia' noto per avere
invitato il Tribunale dell'Aia ad aprire una sede a Belgrado e per avere
chiesto la ammissione ex-novo del suo paese all'ONU rompendo con tutta
la tradizione diplomatica della Jugoslavia, ha effettuato una visita di
cortesia al quartier generale della NATO. Svilanovic ha affermato che in
Kosovo - dopo la pulizia etnica a danno delle minoranze non albanesi ed
albanesi non secessioniste - la RFJ e la NATO possono finalmente
lavorare insieme; in cambio, il criminale di guerra Robertson ha offerto
alla RFJ la partecipazione alla Partnership for Peace, primo passo per
l'inserimento nella Alleanza.

Dopo la visita al quartiere generale della NATO ci attendiamo che
Svilanovic, per ringraziare del sostegno politico ed elettorale offerto
alla nuova classe dirigente di destra in Jugoslavia, si presenti anche
alla redazione del "Manifesto".

(Italo Slavo; grazie a Carlo per la segnalazione)


> http://www.nato.int/docu/update/2001/0103/u01e.htm
>
>
>
> Visit of Yugoslav official to NATO HQ
>
> A Yugoslav minister visited NATO
> for the first time since the defeat of
> Slobodan Milosevic's regime in
> democratic elections and its ouster
> in popular demonstrations last
> autumn. Goran Svilanovic, foreign
> minister since Yugoslavia's democratic transition,
> visited NATO HQ on 10 January and met with Lord
> Robertson and NATO Ambassadors.
>
> At a joint press conference, Lord Robertson welcomed
> the democratic changes in Yugoslavia and described
> the day as "important and historic". He stressed that
> NATO's 1999 air campaign had not been directed
> against the people of Yugoslavia, whom he
> congratulated for seizing a "historic opportunity to grab
> back their future".
>
> Foreign Minister Svilanovic said:
> "Peace and stability is the long
> time goal, not only for our
> government, but for all
> governments in the region," and
> promised to work to resolve all
> outstanding issues. These include the security situation
> in the ground security zone bordering Kosovo,
> confidence building measures, war crimes and
> integration into European institutions.
>
> Concerning the ground security zone in southern
> Serbia, Foreign Minister Svilanovic said that: "We
> believe that the starting point is that we are not an
> enemy army any more." Lord Robertson echoed
> these sentiments, describing the security situation
> there as a matter of "common concern" and repeating
> his call for restraint from all sides in this area.
>
> The two men agreed to open dialogue on all matters
> of common concern, including depleted uranium.
>
> Foreign Minister Svilanovic said that at present the
> Yugoslav government had no position on a
> participation in the Partnership for Peace programme.
> Meanwhile, Lord Robertson hoped that Bosnia and
> Herzegovina and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia,
> the two European countries which were not members
> of the Partnership for Peace programme and the
> Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC), will
> eventually join.
>

---

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VIVA LA BUGIA SE E' PER LA DEMOCRAZIA


LtCdr. Garneau, SFOR: "at no time did NATO use depleted uranium
munitions during air-strikes in Bosnia"
.... detto il 15 dicembre 1997 in conferenza stampa!

(Ringraziamo Carlo per la segnalazione)


> http://www.nato.int/sfor/trans/1997/t971215a.htm
>
>
>
> SFOR
> Transcript
> 15 Dec. 1997
>
>
>
> Transcript: Joint Press Conference
>
> 15 December 1997, 1130 Hours
> Coalition Press Information Centre
> Tito Barracks
>
>
>
> Simon Haselock, OHR: Good morning everybody. I see
> that we're not on film today, so today's not an important
> day. I haven't got very much to say, other than, as you know,
> today the BiH Parliaments are meeting, both Houses: one at
> 11, which started already, and one at 1400. The main issue
> is of course the passing of the three laws which were
> signed up to by the Presidency in Bonn. Those are the laws
> on passports, citizenship, and the Council of Ministers.
> You'll also be aware in terms of deadlines, the 15th, i.e.
> today, was the first Bonn deadline. So, we hope the
> Parliament will approve these laws in a fashion that was
> expected at Bonn.
>
> Thank you very much.
>
> LtCdr. Garneau, SFOR: Good morning everyone. I have
> two items for you today. The first one is the weekly wrap
> up of weapon storage site inspections and monitoring. In
> the course of last week, a total of 77 weapon storage sites
> were inspected and no discrepancies were found.
>
> SFOR troops also monitored 204 training and movement
> activities, in which 13 were aborted by the factions without
> prior announcement to SFOR. Sanctions are being
> considered.
>
> A total of 127 demining activities on both sides were
> monitored and deemed effective.
>
> My second point is in reference to a newspaper article this
> morning in the Oslobodjenje, a story which was also
> carried in Belgrade and Zagreb media, referring to the use
> of depleted uranium by NATO troops. First, let me say that
> this is not an SFOR issue; however, NATO has stated quite
> categorically that at no time did NATO use depleted
> uranium munitions during air-strikes in Bosnia. Depleted
> uranium is a hardened substance used to penetrate armor
> plating. As a matter of policy, we do not discuss our
> military capability and the types of ammunition we carry.
> Furthermore, SFOR also confirms that no SFOR troops are
> subject to any health precautions associated with depleted
> uranium waste. As far as we're concerned, this whole issue
> is fabrication.
>
> That is all I have.
>
> Alex Ivanko, UNMIBH: Just one point; I'm pleased to
> announce the inauguration of the Federation Police
> Academy today. The inauguration ceremony is currently
> ongoing and it started at 11 o'clock.
>
> That's all I have.
>
> Luke Zahner, OSCE: Just a brief point from the OSCE
> this morning; today at 1500 hours, the OSCE's
> Democratization Branch is kicking off its tolerance
> information campaign with a press conference and event at
> the Teacher's School, Obala Kulina Bana 3. The press are
> invited to attend, and Ambassador Frowick will be making
> a statement and will be available to answer questions. Also
> speaking will be local leaders who are participating in this
> initiative. Thank you.
>
> Kris Janowski, UNHCR: No points from UNHCR.
>
> Simon Haselock, OHR: Questions please?
>
> Wunderbar. Thank you very much.
>

---

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> http://antiwar.com/orig/jatras6.html
> ANTIWAR, Monday, January 15, 2001
>
>
> The Media's War Against the Serbs
>
> by Stella L. Jatras *
>
>
> The media's biased war against the Serbs has been a major factor in the
> dismemberment of the former Yugoslavia and the demonizing of an entire
> nation. One of the best examples of such bias can be found in the
> Washington Times, both in its reporting of events in the Balkans and its
> editorial policy. I single out the Washington Times because it is
> supposedly the "conservative" newspaper, the counter to the liberal news
> that is published in the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the
> rest of the liberal media. Unfortunately, the Washington Times has
> become part of the liberal propaganda machine that helped to bring death
> and suffering to tens of thousands of innocent people.
>
> One explanation for the Times' slanted reporting which agrees with the
> liberal media may be the fact that it depends on "stringers,"
> (reporters) to cover much of its foreign news, specifically in the
> Balkans. This may also explain why its editorial staff has been
> consistently anti-Serb.
>
> In his "World Review" section on 5 March, 2000, the Washington Times'
> Foreign Desk Editor David Jones wrote, "But the stringers quickly lose
> interest in filing to us if we are not buying their stories and putting
> them in the paper." What this tells me is that the bottom line in
> formulating stories has little to do with the truth, or even accuracy,
> but has everything to do with what makes the biggest headlines and
> brings in the most financial rewards for both the "stringer" and the
> Washington Times. How often are these goals achieved by embellishing the
> "facts" to add a little sensationalism?
>
> Case in point. On 6 August 1998, the Washington Times featured
> "stringer" Philip Smucker's exclusive front page headline read: "Kosovar
> bodies bulldozed to dump; Serbs deny massacre, but evidence [not
> "alleged," or "thought-to-be], but "evidence impossible to avoid of mass
> graves containing the bodies of 567." He also claimed that at least half
> of the bodies were those of women and children although, to that point,
> the alleged bodies had not been exhumed. To further embellish his story,
> Smucker went on to say, "Stark evidence in the form of freshly turned
> earth and the overwhelming stench of death has exposed the presence of
> scores of bodies that were bulldozed into a garbage dump after a Serbian
> attack against ethnic Albanian rebels who tried to seize this town."
> Even a photograph accompanied Smucker's article with the caption, "A
> news photographer shoots a picture of fresh graves - some identified
> with ethnic Albanian names - in the Kosovar town of Orahovac," (Kosova
> is the Albanian name given to Kosovo).
>
> However, on the very same day, the Guardian [UK] of 6 August 1998,
> reported, "European Union (EU) observers found no evidence of mass
> graves reported in the town of Orahovac, the teams' Austrian leader,
> Walter Ebenberger, said." In contrast to the front page coverage given
> to Mr. Smucker's intended shock-attention report on Serb atrocities, the
> following day the Washington Times carried a small, barely noticeable
> item hidden on page A15 (World Scene, 7 August 1998), which stated,
> "NATO Chief [Secretary-General Javier Solana] dismissed mass graves in
> Kosovo."
>
> In all honesty, does it not bother the editors at the Washington Times
> that "stringer" Smucker's report of 6 August was a vicious lie? There
> were no mass graves containing the bodies of 567 ethnic Albanian
> victims; but there it was, on the front page. I stand in awe of the fact
> that truth in journalism is what they want it to be, what sells, and
> that articles by Mr. Smucker required, in the Times' judgment, no
> documentation, no verification, no responsibility, and apparently were
> accepted without question. Smucker's was the kind of reporting that
> played right into Clinton's New World Order scheme and at the same time,
> helped to prepare the minds of Americans to accept whatever punishment
> we dished out against the Serbian people, including NATO's 78 days of
> bombing in an unmerciful, unjust and immoral air war led by the United
> States. It was this kind of vile reporting that caused so many people to
> say, "After all, they [the Serbs] deserve it!"
>
> Mr. Jones now informs us that the new "stringer" for the Washington
> Times to replace Philip Smucker, for whom Mr. Jones has only high
> praise, is Joshua Kucera. Of Mr. Kucera, Jones writes: "The interest [in
> the elections throughout Serbia held on 24 December 2000] is so light,
> in fact that our freelance correspondent in the Balkans, Joshua Kucera,
> did not even file on the vote. He left that to the wire services and
> instead spent the day driving through a region held by ethnic-Albanian
> rebels in southern Serbia where he interviewed a rebel commander."
>
> Does anyone seriously believe that, unless Mr. Kucera was sympathetic to
> the Albanian "rebels," he would have been given an interview? No way.
> The "rebels" demand complete loyalty to their cause. In his 31 December
> article in the Times titled "A guerrilla seeks to coexist," Mr. Kucera
> leaves no doubt where his pro-Albanian biases lie when he interviewed
> the Albanian guerrilla leader, Cmdr. Lleshi, "a Fidel Castro
> look-alike," in the southern border of Serbia. "Coexist" my foot! What's
> an Albanian doing in Serbia anyway, other than to wage war against the
> Serbs? Mr. Kucera's article was accompanied by a photo of an Albanian
> house that had been sacked by Serbs, another ploy by the Washington
> Times to gain sympathy for the Albanian rebels' cause, rather than show
> photos of dead Serbian police officers who were murdered by Lleshi's
> thugs or any photos of the destruction of Serbian homes.
>
> Where is the coverage of the continued violence in Kosovo where recently
> two elderly Serbs were dragged from their homes and their throats
> slashed, killing the husband while the wife remained in critical
> condition in a hospital? (AFP, 29 Dec 2000). Why were there no photos of
> this Serbian woman's suffering? Probably because she was not an
> Albanian. But again, the Washington Times lives up to its own anti-Serb
> bias by giving Mr. Kucera extensive coverage of what the Albanians want;
> yet in his article, he did not interview one Serb.
>
> It seems that the Times reporters have learned that it doesn't pay to be
> impartial in the Balkans. Remember Canadian Major General Lewis
> MacKenzie? General MacKenzie was the first UNPROFOR commander in Bosnia
> who made the mistake of saying that all sides were doing terrible
> things. For this, the Bosnian Muslim government demanded that General
> MacKenzie be removed as UNPROFOR commander. Furthermore, he was falsely
> accused of having raped and murdered four Muslim women (from his book,
> Peacekeeper, the Road to Sarajevo, page 327). The point is, Mr. Kucera
> would never have gotten his exclusive interview with the Albanian
> guerrilla commander unless they were sure they would get favorable
> coverage for their Albanian jihad.
>
> Virtually nothing is being reported today of the barbarity being
> committed against the Serbs, Romanies and non-Albanians by the former
> Kosovo Liberation Army, who are engaged in sex slavery (Albanian Daily
> News, October 5, 2000), prostitution, kidnaping, murder, and rape,
> "Kosovo Rebels Raped Serb Nun, Say French Officials," New York Post, 19
> June 1999. "When they saw us they stopped a while, shouted 'NATO, NATO,'
> and then beat a hasty retreat, the officer said." Over 40% of heroin
> going into Europe comes from Kosovo (the Guardian [UK]). Over
> one-hundred Serbian Orthodox Churches were destroyed during the first
> two months after KFOR entered Kosovo, more than under 500 years of
> Ottoman rule.
>
> Scant attention is being paid to what is happening across the southern
> border in Serbia from Kosovo which threatens to become another Balkan
> war. Where is the coverage by CNN and the other networks that gave us a
> blow-by-blow description that never failed to support their slanted
> anti-Serb view of the war in Kosovo? Where's the outcry from all those
> politicians who were so quick to denounce the Serbs for protecting what
> belonged to them? The Albanian guerrillas known as the Liberation Army
> of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja (UCPMB) and who have fashioned
> themselves after the KLA cutthroats, invited "stringer" Kucera into
> their camp after having invaded Serbia and murdered Serbian police
> officers, something that no sovereign nation can be expected to
> tolerate. In one of the few reports to emerge, an AFP report of 6
> January stated that Albanians now "enjoy new lease of life in border
> zone as an endless column of battered taxis streams along the recently
> repaired dirt road winding through the rebel-held hills of southern
> Serbia, linking ethnic Albanian communities on both sides of the Kosovo
> boundary," as Serb neighbors incredulously watch them "exploiting a
> NATO-enforced demilitarized zone to thumb their noses at government
> forces." "This is unbelievable! The terrorists are at our doorstep,
> getting further with no reaction at all. What is the international
> community doing?" raged a Serb in Bujanovac, just over a mile (two
> kilometers) away from the first rebel road block."
>
> The Serbs have two choices. Unless NATO takes steps to crush the
> Albanian guerrilla insurgents which thus far appears unlikely, the Serb
> paramilitary will be forced to stop Albanian provocations by all means
> necessary for which they will undoubtedly be condemned by the West, just
> as they were condemned in Kosovo for protecting what was theirs. Or they
> will have to resign themselves to the possibility that the West will
> never give them permission to defend themselves by denying them the
> heavy weapons they need to clean house, in which case, the southern
> region of Serbia will go the way of Kosovo. The Albanian guerrillas are
> using the same tactics used by the KLA that won them their successes in
> Kosovo, aided by papers such as the Washington Times whose anti-Serb
> reports routinely include photos of suffering ethnic Albanian women
> and/or children, often on the front page, but almost never a photo of
> even one suffering Serbian woman or child.
>
> With the new democratic president in Serbia, the former Kosovo
> Liberation Army see their chances for an independent Islamic state and a
> Greater Albania slipping through their fingers. Where once KFOR was seen
> as liberators by ethnic Albanians, they are now seen by the KLA as their
> oppressors and are poised to turn their guns on them. "Albanians
> threaten to kill UK peacekeepers" reports the Guardian on 24 December.
> The Daily Telegraph [UK] reported on 22 December, "We'll fight NATO
> troops, warn Albanian rebels," (Is this anyway to treat a friend?).
> "Kosovo Attacks Stir US Concern; Official Says NATO May have to Fight
> Ethnic Albanians," writes the Washington Post on 15 March. Tod Lindberg
> formerly of the Washington Times wrote in his column of 23 May, 2000,
> "Keep peace in Kosovo - Don't bring the boys home yet." He stated in his
> opinion piece, "I explained in this space last week why I thought
> Byrd-Warner was a bad idea." The defeated Byrd-Warner amendment would
> have simply required the president to go before Congress last July to
> justify why our troops should remain in Kosovo. Considering our kids are
> today's target of ethnic Albanians and the KLA, whom they were sent
> there to protect, I ask Mr. Lindberg, "Is NOW the right time to bring
> our "boys" home?" Since his statement only refers to our "boys" coming
> home, does that mean our "girls" get to stay in Kosovo?
>
> The outrage is that we have handed over Serbia's Jerusalem, the seat of
> the Serbian Orthodox Church, to a bunch of KLA narco-terrorists who have
> been turned into heroes by commentators such as Helle Bering, editorial
> page editor of the Washington Times, who, on 18 August 1999, glowingly
> wrote of "My dinner with the KLA, somewhere outside Budapest." Perhaps
> Ms. Bering should be judged by the company she keeps. But the blame game
> continues. In the Times of 2 January, 2001, an editorial once again lays
> all the blame for the tragic events in the Balkans solely on one man,
> "Put Milosevic on trial," without laying any of the blame on Franjo
> Tudjman, former president of Croatia, who would have been indicted by
> the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague if he were still alive,
> according to an AFP report of 8 November, 2000. Nor does it mention the
> role of Bosnian Muslim president, Alija Izetbegovic, about whom a
> Deutsche Presse Agentur dispatch of June 6, 1996 wrote, "For the first
> time, a senior UN official has admitted the existence of a secret UN
> report that blames the Bosnian Moslems for the February 1994 massacre of
> Moslems at a Sarajevo [Markale] market, the excuse the US used to bomb
> the Bosnian Serbs." The report continues that the Moslems fired on their
> own people "in order to create international sympathy and get the West
> to fight on their side against the Serbs." Sounds like a war crime to
> me.
>
> The Washington Times does not stand alone guilty in the dismembering of
> a sovereign nation. We can go back as far as 1992 when James Baker,
> former Secretary of State wrote in his book, The Politics of Diplomacy:
> Revolution, war and peace, 1889-1992, "....After the meeting, I had
> Larry Eagleburger take Silajdzic [Bosnian Foreign Minister] to see the
> EC troika political directors (who happened to be visiting the
> Department) and asked Margaret Tutwiler to talk to the Foreign Minister
> about the importance of using Western mass media to build support in
> Europe and North America for the Bosnian cause. I also had her talk to
> her contacts at the four television networks, the Washington Post, and
> the New York Times to try to get more attention focused on the story
> (pg. 643-644)." In other words, we had already taken sides and the Serbs
> never had a chance.
>
> In many ways I regret the extensive criticisms I have of the Washington
> Times regarding its Balkan policy. On many other issues, the Washington
> Times is the only major newspaper that counters the liberal slant of the
> major print and broadcast media. However, I cannot remain silent to the
> fact that this misrepresentation has done a disservice not only to
> innocent victims, but a disservice to its readers. But even more curious
> is the question of what motivates so many journalists to side with such
> gangsters? If I know the truth, surely, they must know it also. However,
> as Adolf Hitler said in 1939, "The great masses of people will more
> easily fall victims to a big lie than to a smaller one." <end>
>
> ..30
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> As a career military officer's wife, Stella Jatras has traveled widely
> and has lived in many foreign countries where she not only learned about
> other cultures but became very knowledgeable regarding world affairs and
> world politics. Stella Jatras lived in Moscow for two years where her
husband,
> George, was the Senior Air Attaché), and while there, worked in the
> Political Section of the US Embassy.
> Stella has also lived in Germany, Greece and Saudi Arabia.
> Her travels took her to over twenty countries.
>
> ----------------
> Further reading:
>
> Norma von Ragenfeld-Feldman:
> THE WAR IN FORMER YUGOSLAVIA AND THE AMERICAN NEWS MEDIA
> http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/LIE/HK/SATAN.html
>
> Peter Brock: The Partisan Press
> http://www.4cbiz.net/kosta/autori/brock.peter/partizan.press.html

              -----Original Message-----
              From: Michel Chossudovsky
[mailto:chossudovsky@...]
              Sent: Monday, January 15, 2001 3:09 PM
              Subject: Low Intensity Nuclear War
             
The United Nations Environment
Organization (WHO) convey the illusion (contrary to scientific evidence)
that the health risks of depleted uranium can easily be dealt with by
cordoning off and "cleaning up" the "affected areas" targeted by the US
Air Force's A-10 "anti-tank killers." What they fail to mention is that
the radioactive dust has already spread beyond the 72 "identified target
sites" in Kosovo. Most of the villages and cities including Pristina,
Prizren and Pec lie within less than 20 km. of these sites, confirming
that the whole province is contaminated, putting not only "peacekeepers"
but the entire civilian population at risk.

              --

              LOW INTENSITY NUCLEAR WAR
              by
              Michel Chossudovsky
Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa, author of "The
Globalization of Poverty", second enlarged edition, Common Courage
Press, 2001.


The death from leukemia of eight Italian peacekeepers stationed in
Bosnia and Kosovo sparked an uproar in the Italian Parliament, following
the leaking of a secret military document to the Italian newspaper La
Republicca. In Portugal, the Defense Ministry was also involved in what
amounted to a deliberate camouflage of "the cause of death" of
Portuguese peacekeeper Corporal Hugo Paulino. "'Citing "herpes of the
brain', the army refused to allow his family to commission a postmortem
examination."1 Amidst mounting political pressure, Defense Minister
Julio Castro Caldas advised NATO Headquarters in November that he was
withdrawing Portuguese troops from Kosovo: "They were not, he said,
going to become uranium meat". 2
As the number of cancer cases among Balkans "peacekeepers" rises, NATO's
cover-up has started to fracture. Several European governments have been
obliged to publicly acknowledge the "alleged health risks" of depleted
uranium (DU) shells used by the US Air Force in NATO's 78-day war
against Yugoslavia.
The Western media points to an apparent "split" within the military
alliance. In fact there was no "division" or disagreement between
Washington and its European allies until the scandal broke through the
gilded surface.
Italy, Portugal, France and Belgium were fully aware that DU weapons
were being used. The health impacts --including mountains of scientific
reports-- were known and available to European governments. Italy
participated in the scheduling of the A-10 "anti-tank killer" raids
(carrying DU shells) out of its Aviano and Gioia del Colle air force
bases. The Italian Defense Ministry knew what was happening at military
bases under its jurisdiction.
Washington's European partners in NATO including Britain, France,
Turkey, Greece have DU weapons in their arsenals. Canada is one of the
main suppliers of depleted uranium. NATO countries share full
responsibility for the use of weapons banned by the Geneva and Hague
conventions and the 1945 Nuremberg Charter on war crimes. 3
Since the Gulf War, Washington launched a "cover-up" on the health
impacts of DU toxic radiation known as the "Gulf War Syndrome", with the
tacit endorsement of its NATO partners.
While NATO had until recently denied using DU shells in the 1999 war
against Yugoslavia, it now admits that although it did use DU
ammunition, the shells "have negligible radioactivity.and [a]ny
resulting debris posing any significant risk dissipates soon after the
impact." 4 While casually denying "any connection between illness and
exposure to depleted uranium", the Pentagon nonetheless concedes --in an
ambiguous statement-- that "the main danger posed by depleted uranium
occurs if it is inhaled." 5
And who inhales the radioactive dust, which has spread across the Land?
The shrouded statements from European governments convey the
uncomfortable illusion that only peacekeepers "might be at risk", --i.e.
radioactive particles are only inhaled by military personnel and
expatriate civilians, as if nobody else in the Balkans were affected.
The impacts on local civilians are not mentioned.
In docile complicity, a new media consensus has unfolded: the mainstream
press concurs without further scrutiny that only "peace-keepers" breathe
the air. "But what about everybody else."6 In Kosovo some 2 million
civilian men, women and children have been exposed to the radioactive
fallout since the beginning of the bombing in March 1999. In the
Balkans, more than 20 million people are potentially at risk:
"The risk in Kosovo and elsewhere in the Balkans is augmented by
the uncertainty of where DU was dropped in whatever form and what winds
and surface water movements spread it further. Working the fields,
walking about, just being there, touching objects, breathing and
drinking water are all risky. A British expert predicted that thousands
of people in the Balkans will get sick of DU. The radioactive and toxic
DU-oxides don't disintegrate. They are practically permanent." 7
Keep in mind that the heavily armed "peacekeepers" together with United
Nations staff and civilian personnel of "humanitarian" organisations
entered Kosovo in June 1999. The spread of radioactive dust from DU,
however, started on "day one" of the 78 day bombing of Yugoslavia. With
the exception of NATO Special Forces --who were assisting the KLA on the
ground-- NATO military personnel was not present on the battlefield. In
other words, there was no radioactive exposure to NATO troops during a
"push button" air war, which the Alliance forces waged from the high
skies. Yugoslav civilians are, therefore, at much greater risk because
they were exposed to radioactive fallout throughout the bombings as well
in the wake of the war. Yet the official communiqués suggest that only
KFOR troops and expatriate civilians "might be at risk" implying that
local civilians simply do not matter. Only servicemen and expatriate
personnel have been screened for radiation levels.

CHILDHOOD CANCERS

The first signs of radiation on children, including herpes on the mouth
and skin rashes on the back and ankles have been observed in Kosovo.8 In
Northern Kosovo --the area least affected by DU shells (see Map at
http://balkans.unep.ch/du/targetmap.html) -- 160 people are being
treated for cancer.9 The number of leukemia cases in Northern Kosovo has
increased by 200 percent since NATO's air campaign, and children have
been born with deformities.10 This information regarding civilian
victims --which the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) has been
careful not to reveal--- refutes NATO's main "assumption" that
radioactive dust does not spread beyond the target sites, most of which
are in the Southwestern and Southern regions close to the Albanian and
Macedonian borders.
These findings are consistent with those from Iraq, where the use of
depleted uranium weapons during the 1991 Gulf War resulted in "increases
in childhood cancers and leukemia, Hodgkin's disease, lymphomas, and
increases in congenital diseases and deformities in foetuses, along with
limb reductional abnormalities and increases in genetic abnormalities
throughout Iraq."11 Pedriatic examinations on Iraqi children confirm
that:
"childhood leukemia has risen 600% in the areas [of Iraq] where DU was
used. Stillbirths, births or abortion of fetuses with monstrous
abnormalities, and other cancers in children born since [the Gulf War
in] 1991 have also been found." 12
            
COVER-UP
             
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Health
Organization (WHO) have tacitly accepted NATO-Pentagon assumptions
concerning the health impacts of depleted uranium. When UNEP conducted
its first assessment of DU radiation in Kosovo in 1999, NATO refused to
provide the mission with maps indicating the locations of "affected
areas" (points of impact where DU shells had fallen).
On the pretext that "there was insufficient data available to
comprehensively address the issue of the impacts of depleted uranium
ordnance," UNEP produced an inconclusive and noncommittal "desk study"
which was appended to the 1999 Balkans Task Force Report (BTF) on the
environmental impacts of the War. 13 UNEP's desk study pointed to the
"possible use of DU" thereby implying that it was still unsure as to
whether DU shells had actually been used.
UNEP's evasiveness -claiming lack of sufficient data-- contributed, in
the wake of the bombings, to temporarily dissipating public concern.
More generally, the UNEP-UNCHS Balkans Task Force report tends to
downplay the seriousness of the environmental catastrophe triggered by
NATO. Amply documented, the catastrophe was the deliberate result of
military planning.14
NATO maps (indicating where DU shells had been targeted) were not
required for UNEP and the WHO to conduct an investigation on the health
impacts of depleted uranium radiation. A study of this nature
--inevitably requiring a team of medical specialists in pedriatics and
cancer working in liaison with experts on toxic radiation-- was never
carried out. In fact, UNEP's stated "scientific" assumption precluded
from the outset a meaningful assessment of the health impacts. According
to UNEP:
"the effects of DU are mainly localized in the places DU has been used
and the affected areas are likely to be small". 15 See the 1999 desk
study, op. cit.)
This proposition (which is presented without scientific proof) is shared
by UNEP's sister organization, the WHO: "You would have to be very close
to a damaged tank and be there within
seconds of it being hit. These soldiers were very unlikely to have been
exposed.'' 16
These statements by UN bodies (quoted by NATO and the Pentagon to
justify the use of DU weapons) are part and parcel of the camouflage.
They convey the illusion that the health risks to peacekeepers and local
civilians can easily be dealt with by cordoning off and "cleaning up"
the "targeted areas."
The WHO has warned, in this regard, that depleted uranium could affect
children playing in these areas "because children. tend to pick up
pieces of dirt or put their toys in their mouth."17 What the WHO fails
to acknowledge is that the radioactive dust has already spread beyond
the affected areas, implying that children throughout Kosovo are at
risk.
This tacit complicity of specialized agencies of the UN is yet another
symptom of the deterioration of the United Nations system, which now
plays an underhand role in covering up NATO war crimes. Since the Gulf
War, the WHO has been instrumental in blocking a meaningful
investigation of the health impacts of depleted uranium radiation on
Iraqi children, claiming "it had no data to conduct an indepth
investigation" 18
             
UNEP AND NATO WORKING HAND IN GLOVE

Amidst the public outcry and mounting evidence of cancer among Balkans
military personnel, UNEP conducted a second assessment in November 2000
which included field measurements of beta and gamma particle radiations
in 11 so-called "affected areas" of Kosovo.19
Despite NATO's earlier refusal to collaborate with UNEP, the two
organizations are currently working hand in glove. The composition of
the mission was established in consultation with NATO. The
representative from Greenpeace (involved in the 1999 study) had been
dumped. NATO maps were readily available; the investigation was to focus
narrowly on the collection of soil, water samples, etc. in 11 selected
sites ("affected areas") out of a total of some 72 sites within Kosovo
(see NATO map below, at http://balkans.unep.ch/du/targetmap.html ).
The broader health issues were not part of the mission's terms of
reference. The two medical researchers dispatched by the WHO in 1999 (as
part of the desk study mission) had been replaced with experts from the
US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine (see
http://chppm-www.apgea.army.mil/default.htm) and AC Laboratorium Spiez
(ACLS), a division of the Swiss Defense Procurement Agency.
AC Laboratorium Spiez (ACLS) has actively collaborated in chemical
weapons inspections in Iraq. Under the disguise of Swiss neutrality,
ACLS constitutes an informal mouthpiece for NATO. ACLS has been on
contract with NATO's "Partnership for Peace" financed by the Swiss
government's contribution to the PfP.20
Although the November mission was still under UNEP auspices, the Swiss
government was funding most of fieldwork with ACLS --a division of the
Swiss military-- playing a central role. The mission --integrated by
representatives linked to the Military establishment-- was working on
the premise (amply reviewed on ACLS's web page) that DU radioactive dust
does not (under any circumstances) travel beyond the "point of release."
21
The results of the report to be published in March 2001 are a foregone
conclusion. They focus on radiation levels in the immediate vicinity of
the target sites . According to the mission's "back to office report"
(January 2001):
". [A]lready at this stage the Team can conclude that at some of the DU
locations, the radiation level is slightly higher above normal at very
limited spots. It would therefore be an unnecessary risk to the
population to be in direct contact with any remnants of DU ammunition or
with the spots where these have been found." 22

DOUBLE STANDARDS
             
If radioactivity were confined to so-called "very limited spots", why
then have KFOR troops been instructed by their governments "not to eat
local produce. have drinking water flown in .and that clothes must be
destroyed on departure and vehicles decontaminated."23 According to Paul
Sullivan, executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center,
depleted uranium in Yugoslavia could affect "agricultural areas, places
where livestock graze and where crops are grown, thereby introducing the
specter of possible contamination of the food chain." (In November 2000,
Gulf War veterans affected by DU launched a class action law-suit
against the US government).
             
CONTAMINATION OVER A LARGE GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
             
According to NATO sources (communicated to UNEP), some 112 sites in
Yugoslavia (of which 72 are in Kosovo) were targeted during the war with
depleted uranium antitank shells. Between 30,000 and 50,000 DU shells
were fired.
Scientific evidence amply confirms that the DU radioactive aerosol
spreads from "the point of release" over a large geographical area
suggesting that large parts of the province of Kosovo are contaminated.
"[R]adioactive derivatives can linger in the air for months. ''Just one
particle in the lungs is enough. a single particle could travel to the
lymph nodes, where the radioactivity would lower the body's defenses
against lymphomas and leukemia'' 24
According to World renowned radiologist Dr. Rosalie Bertell:
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". 25
The targeted sites within Kosovo (see NATO map at
http://balkans.unep.ch/du/targetmap.html) although concentrated on the
South-western border are scattered throughout the province. Most of the
villages and cities including Pristina, Prizren and Pec lie within less
than 20 km. of the 72 DU target sites confirming that the entire
province is contaminated.
             
NATO WAR CRIMES
             
The bombing of Yugoslavia is best described as a "low intensity nuclear
war" using toxic radioactive shells and missiles. Amply documented, the
radioactive fall-out potentially puts millions of people at risk
throughout the Balkans.
In March 1999, NATO launched the air raids invoking broad humanitarian
principles and ideals. NATO had "come to the rescue" of ethnic Albanian
Kosovars on the grounds they were being massacred by Serb forces. The
forensic reports by the FBI and Europol confirm that the massacres did
not occur. In a cruel irony, Albanian Kosovar civilians are among the
main victims of DU radiation.
To maintain the cover-up, NATO is now prepared to reveal a small
fraction of the truth. The military Alliance --in liaison with NATO
member governments-- wants at all cost to maintain the focus on
"peacekeepers"
and keep local civilians out of the picture, because if the entire truth
gets out, then people might start asking questions such as "how is it
that the Kosovar Albanians, the people we were supposed to rescue are
now
the victims?"
In both Bosnia and Kosovo, the UN has been careful not to record cancer
cases among civilians. The narrow focus on "peacekeepers" is part of the
cover-up. It distracts public opinion from the broader issue of civilian
victims.
The primary victims of DU weapons are children, making their use a "war
crime against children." The use of depleted uranium munitions is only
one among several NATO crimes against humanity committed in Iraq and the
Balkans According to official records, some 1800 Balkans peacekeepers
(Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo) suffer from health ailments related to
DU radiation.26.
Assuming the same level of risk (as a percentage of population), the
numbers of civilians throughout former Yugoslavia affected by DU
radiation would be in the tens of thousands. British scientist Roger
Coghill suggests, in this regard, that "throughout the Balkan region,
there will be an extra 10,150 deaths from cancer because of the use of
DU. That will include local people, K-FOR personnel, aid workers,
everyone."27 Moreover, according to a report published in Athens during
the War, the impacts of depleted uranium are likely to extend beyond the
Balkans. Albania, and Macedonia but also Greece, Italy, Austria and
Hungary face a potential threat to human health as a result of the use
of radioactive depleted uranium shells during the 1999 War.
While no overall data on civilian deaths have been recorded, partial
evidence confirms that a large numbers of civilians have already died as
result of DU radiation since the war in Bosnia:
"DU radiation and an apparent use of defoliants by US/NATO troops
against Serbian land and population [in Bosnia], have caused many birth
defects among babies born after the US/NATO bombing and occupation; the
magnitude of this problem has stunned Serbian medical experts and
panicked the population." 28
A recent account points to several hundred deaths of civilians solely in
one Bosnian village: The village is empty, the cemetery full. Soon there
will
be no more room for the dead. Among refugee families who moved to
Bratunac
from Hadzici [in the outskirts of Sarajevo] there is a hardly a
household not cloaked in mourning.On them are fresh wreaths, some with
flowers that have not
yet wilted. On the crosses the years of death 1998, 1999, 2000 and the
grave of a 20 year-old woman at the end of the rows. She died a few days
ago. No one could even imagine that in only one or two years the part of
the cemetery set aside for civilians would be doubly full. It happens
often that one of the natives of Hadzici will suddenly die. Or they will
go to see the doctor in Belgrade and when they come back their relatives
will tell us that they are dying of cancer. [C]hief doctor Slavica
Jovanovic.conducted an investigation and proved that in 1998 the
mortality rate far exceeded the birth rate. She showed that it wasn't
just a question of fate but something far more serious. 'Zoran
Stankovic, the renowned pathologist from the Military Medical Academy
(VMA) determined that over 200 of his patients from this area died of
cancer, most probably due to the effects of depleted uranium in dropped
NATO bombs five years ago. But someone quickly silenced the public and
everything was hushed up. 'You see, our cemetery is full of fresh graves
while the people from Vinca [Nuclear Institute] claim that uranium isn't
dangerous. What other kind of evidence do you need if people are
dying?.' The refugees from Hadzici arrived in Bratunac in a sizeable
number. There were almost 5,000 of them. There were 1,000 just in the
collective centers. Now, says Zelenovic, 'there are about 600 of them
left. And they certainly had nowhere else to go' . Someone dies of
cancer every third day; there is no more room in the cemeteries."29

         *       *       *

              The NATO "Map Of Sites As Being Targeted By Ordnance
Containing Depleted
              Uranium during the 1999 Kosovo Conflict" is attached. The
Map can also
              be consulted at http://balkans.unep.ch/du/targetmap.html
              Selected photographs of Iraqi children affected by DU
radiation
              attached. Complete list of photos at:
              http://www.web-light.nl/VISIE/extremedeformities.html.
              If unable to access the document, go first to
http://www.web-light.nl/
              and follow the link to "Depleted Uranium" and then to
"Extreme
              Deformities in Iraqi Children". Some of these photographs
are by
              renowned scientist and expert on DU radiation Dr.
Siegfried Horst
              Guenther.

              *     *     *

              ENDNOTES
              1 The Independent, London, 4 January 2001.
              2 See Felicity Arbutnot, "It Turns out that Depleted
Uranium is Bad for
              NATO" Troops, Emperors Clothes,
              http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/arbuth/port.htm. 11
October 2000.
              See also interview with F. Arbutnot.
              3 In all, some 17 countries including Russia, Israel,
Saudi Arabia and
              South Korea are known to have DU weapons in their arsenal.
See Vladimir
              Zajic, Review of Radioactivity, Military Use, and Health
Effects of
              Depleted Uranium, 1999 at http://vzajic.tripod.com/. See
John
              Catalinotto and Sara Flounders, Is the Israeli Military
using Depleted
              Uranium Weapons against the Palestinians? International
Action Center,
              http://www.iacenter.org/, New York, 2000
              4 Agence France Presse, 4 January 20001.
              5 United Press International, 5 January 2001.
              6 See Felicity Arbutnot, op cit.
              7 Piot Bein, "More on Depleted Uranium", Emperors Clothes
at
              http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/arbuth/port.htm.11
October 2000.
              8 According to Dr. Siegfried Horst Guenther, "Uran
Geschosse:
              Schwergeschädigte Soldaten, missgebildete Neugeborene,
sterbende
              Kinder, Ahriman Verlag,
http://www.ahriman.com/guenther.htm, Freiburg,
              2000. See also International Action Center, "Metal of
Dishonor, How the
              Pentagon Radiates Soldiers and Civilians with DU Weapons",
Second
              Edition, International Action Center,
http://www.iacenter.org/, New
              York, 2000.
              9 Beta News Agency, Belgrade, 13.50 GMT, 10 Jan 2001, in
BBC Summary of
              World Broadcasts, 12 January 2001.
              10 Ibid.
              11 See Rick McDowell, "Economic Sanctions on Iraq", Z
Magazine, November
              1997.
              12. Carlo Pona, "The Criminal Use of Depleted Uranium",
International
              Tribunal for U.S./NATO War Crimes in Yugoslavia,
International Action
              Center, http://www.iacenter.org/, New York, June 10, 2000.
See also
              "Metal of Dishonor", op. cit.
              13 See UNEP/UNCHS Balkans Task Force Final Report "The
Kosovo Conflict
              -Consequences for the Environment & Human Settlements" at
              http://balkans.unep.ch/fry/fry.html; see the "desk study"
on "The
              Potential Effects on Human Health and the Environment of
the Possible
              Use of Depleted Uranium (DU)" at
http://balkans.unep.ch/du/du.html; see
              also "UN considers New Data on Depleted Uranium in
Kosovo", UNEP,
              Geneva, 20 September 2000.
              14 See Michel Chossudovsky, NATO Willfully Triggered an
Environmental
              Disaster, at www.emperors-clothes.com.
              15 See the 1999 UNEP "desk study", op. cit.
              16 According to a toxicologist at the International Agency
for Research
              on Cancer which is a division of the WHO, Associated
Press, January 5
              2001.
              17 According to WHO specialist, quoted in the Boston
Globe, January 10,
              2001.
              18 Boston Globe, June 27 2000, statement of Mark Parkin,
an expert with
              the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
              19 See UNEP Press Release at
http://balkans.unep.ch/du/missions.html).
              20 See AC Laboratorium Spiez (ACLS) website at
              http://www.vbs.admin.ch/internet/gr/acls/e/index.htm).
              21 Ibid
              22 See UNEP Press Release at
http://balkans.unep.ch/du/missions.html;
              see also UNEP, "Advisory Note on Current work on DU by
UNEP" at.
              http://balkans.unep.ch/press/press010111.html.
              23. Arbuthot, op cit.
              24 According to British radiologist Roger William Coghill,
quoted in
              Associated Press, 5 January 2000.
              25 Rosalie Bertell, Email Communication, May 1999.
              26 RTBF, Belgian French Language Television, 9 January
2001
              27 Calgary Herald, 4 January 2001.
              28 Tika Jankovitch, "Chemical/Nuclear Warfare in Bosnia:
Eyewitness To
              Hell" Comments by Jared Israel, Emperors Clothes at
              http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/tika/hell.html., 9
January 2001.
              29 Dubravka Vujanovic "Someone Dies of Cancer every Third
Day; There is
              no More Room in the Cemeteries" , Nedelni Telegraf,
Belgrade, 10 January
              2001. On the same subject see Robert Fisk, "I see 300
Graves that could
              bear the Headstone: 'Died of Depleted Uranium', The
Independent, London,
              13 January 2001
              C Copyright by Michel Chossudovsky, Ottawa, January 2001.
All rights
              reserved. Permission is granted to post this text on
non-commercial
              community internet sites, provided the essay remains
intact and the
              copyright note is displayed. To publish this text on
commercial internet
              sites, in printed and/or other forms (including excerpts)
contact the
              author at chossudovsky@..., fax: 1-514-4256224,
voice box:
              1-613-5625800,
              ext. 1415.

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