-----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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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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