http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/dec2002/yugo-d10_prn.shtml
World Socialist Web Site www.wsws.org
WSWS : News & Analysis : Europe : The Balkans
Long-term environmental damage due to NATO bombing in Yugoslavia
By Tony Robson
10 December 2002
The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 breached international
humanitarian law and caused long-term environmental damage, a report by
the American based research group, Institute for Energy and
Environmental Research (IEER), has found.
The IEER carried out a case study of two industrial facilities targeted
by NATO in Operation Allied Force. The Pancevo industrial complex,
consisting of a petrochemical and fertiliser plant as well as an oil
refinery, is situated 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Belgrade. The
Zastava car plant in Kragujevac is 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of
Belgrade.
The Pancevo plant stands at the confluence of the River Tamis and the
Danube while Zastava is located on the Lepenica River, a tributary of
the Velika Morava, which in turn meets the Danube 60 kilometres
downstream. After the bombings, toxic chemicals gushed into the waters
of Europe’s second largest river. Civilians living near the plants
became vulnerable to major health risks from contamination of the
atmosphere, food produced locally and the water supply.
The authors caution, “As modern warfare becomes more technologically
sophisticated and targeting more precise, it is essential not to succumb
to the idea that the damage on the ground is also precise and limited.
It may be in some cases, but precise bombing does not always yield
precise or limited damage. As this study indicates, the health and
environmental consequences of precision bombing can affect unborn
generations far into the future, even when the bombs are entirely
successfully in finding their targets.”
The IEER chose the two facilities as case studies because NATO had
carefully selected them as targets. Pancevo and Kragujevac are two of
four areas designated as environmental “hotspots” by the international
body charged with overseeing the post-war cleanup operation, the United
Nations Environmental Program Balkan Task Force (UNEP/BTF.) The report’s
pollution estimates are based largely upon surveys conducted by the
UNEP/BTF in the immediate aftermath of Operation Allied Force. The
majority of the pollutants dealt with in the report can be found in the
Top Twenty Hazardous Substances listed by the Agency for Toxic
Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR).
Pancevo
Three people were killed directly by NATO bombing of the industrial
complex when it was hit repeatedly during April 1999. The NIS Oil
Refinery was the most heavily targeted and was bombed as late as June.
The report concentrates on the major contamination by mercury and
1,2-dichlorethane. Eight metric tonnes and 2,100 metric tonnes were
released of the toxic chemicals respectively. The former is known to
cause brain and digestive disorders and lead to birth defects, while the
latter is classified as a probable human carcinogen and can attack the
nervous system. Both are known to percolate rapidly into the groundwater
when released into the soil, threatening the water supply. Until now
only the mercury spill has received immediate attention, as this is
highly volatile and the vapours pose an immediate threat. While large
amounts of the contaminated soil have been removed, there is still a
residual amount that has entered the groundwater.
The report warns about the lack of action to clear up the
1,2-dichlorethane spill. Fifty percent was released into the ground with
the remainder in the plant’s waste channel. The report explains, “The
fact that the area of contamination has not really spread
1,2-dichlorethane on the surface indicates that any movement from a
surface spill would be downward toward the [local] aquifer. As described
earlier, once contamination has reached the aquifer, it spreads
horizontally in the direction of the groundwater flow” ( Precision
Bombing, Widespread Harm by Sriram Gopal and Nicole Deller, Institute
for Energy and Environmental Research, page.38).
The US Environmental Protection Agency’s regulation for the
concentration of 1,2-dichlorethane in drinking water is set at five
micrograms per litre. The concentrations found in the groundwater around
Pancevo exceeded that by several thousand times in some instances. This
constitutes the main long-term threat in the area as the chemical has a
half-life of 30 years.
Additional sources of toxic pollutants in the area are those released by
fires caused by NATO bombing. At the petrochemical plant, 460 metric
tonnes of vinyl chloride were incinerated whilst 62,000 metric tonnes of
oil and oil related products were burnt at the oil refinery. The result
was a release of hydrochloric acid fumes and nitrogen and sulphur
compounds, which cause respiratory problems. The report states that the
fires at the oil refinery probably released significant amounts of
sulphur dioxide and nitrates, “These two compounds are associated with
acid rain that results from industrial activities.”
A reporter who visited the area noted, “The repeated air strikes on the
industrial complex, which covers several acres, culminated in three huge
hits at 1.00 a.m. on April 18. The bombs sent fireballs into the air and
enveloped Pancevo in clouds of black smoke and milky white gasses.
Flames leapt from the facilities for 10 days.”
An estimated 1,500 tonnes of vinyl chloride, 3,000 times higher than
permitted levels, burned into the air or poured into the soil and river,
according to municipal officials in Pancevo. This has left the banks of
the river edged with white foam that still clogs the canals around the
town. Huge quantities of other noxious chemicals burned or gushed out of
storage facilities, including an estimated 15,000 tonnes of ammonia, 800
tonnes of hydrochloric acid, 250 tonnes of liquid chlorine, vast
quantities of dioxin (a component of Agent Orange and other defoliants)
and 100 tonnes of mercury.
By the dawn of the night attack, dozens of people were hospitalised
gasping for air, or were temporarily blinded or unable to digest food,
witnesses said. At its peak, on the night of April 18, the number of
people evacuated from the town and surrounding villages reached 80,000,
approximately one-tenth of the population.
Kragujevac
The Zastava car plant in Kragujevac, a town with a population of
150,000, was bombed twice, once on April 9 and again on April 12, 1999.
It was hit with a dozen bombs. Before the imposition of sanctions, this
was one of the largest industrial plants in the whole of the Balkans.
In an attempt to deter NATO air strikes, the workers and management at
the plant issued an open letter three days after Operation Allied Force
began explaining that they were forming a human shield around the site.
NATO didn’t alter its plans and 124 people were injured in the
subsequent bombing.
In a further appeal the workers explained, “Tonight, the 9th of April,
the Zastava factory plants in Kragujevac were bombed. The live shield
was broken through. This bombardment has inflicted severe damage to the
factory equipment and almost completely destroyed the energy supply
complex that served not only the Zastava factory, but also the heating
needs of the entire city of Kragujevac: its residential houses, schools,
faculties, hospitals....” [ World Socialist Web Site, April 13, 1999
Workers at Serb car plant bombed by NATO make appeal to world public,
http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/apr1999/zast-a13.shtml%5d
The report concentrates on the dangers posed by the release of
Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), a mix of 209 individual chlorinated
compounds generally used as coolants and lubricants in transformers and
other electrical equipment. Since 1977 their manufacture has been
stopped in the US because they are known to pose a severe health risk.
According to ATSDR, the discharge or accidental release of 1 pound or
more of PCBs into the environment should be reported immediately to the
Environmental Protection Agency. It is a probable human carcinogen and
can cause endocrine disruption.
The power station, assembly line, paint shop and computer centre
suffered either major damage or total destruction. Two transformers were
hit and leaked PCBs into the surrounding area. From one transformer
alone 1,400 litres of pyralene oil (transformer oil composed of PCBs and
another highly toxic substance, tricholrobenzenes, otherwise known as
“trike”) leaked into the floor and waste pits. Workers involved in the
initial clean up did not wear protective clothing and some were taken ill.
The transformer at the power station leaked unknown quantities of PCBs
into the Lepenica River via the sewage system. The gravel basin
underneath the transformer was unable to cope with the volume that was
released and the concentrations of PCBs around the rainwater drain were
higher than inside the plant. The operation to remove the contamination
within the plant has largely been completed by UNEP/BTF, but the same
cannot be said about the drainage system outside. Flooding during July
1999 may have spread pollutants in the waterways to nearby low-lying
agricultural areas. Tests for PCB contamination have not been conducted
on the water wells on the shores of the Morava River by either the
city’s public health institute or UNEP/BTF.
The issue of adequate funding raises the question of liability for the
damages, something that NATO refuses to accept responsibility for. To
make matters worse, other Balkan countries are making compensation
claims against Serbia. The report cites the fact that Hungary has
demanded that Serbia refund orders paid for in advance from the
petrochemical plants destroyed during the bombing.
Violation of international humanitarian law
NATO maintained that its military offensive against Yugoslavia was
justified on humanitarian grounds. However, the report questions the
moral and legal authority of Operation Allied Force. NATO’s military
action did not comply with the Geneva Convention and the laws protecting
the lives of non-combatants adopted in 1949 and the two Additional
Protocols that became international law in 1978. Two years ago, Amnesty
International (AI) found NATO responsible for perpetuating war crimes
after demonstrating that it had violated these laws.
While the IEER estimate the number of civilians killed during Operation
Allied Force at 500, Christopher Layne writing for the Cato Institute
estimates that between 1,200 and 2,000 civilians were killed.
As Operation Allied Force progressed, an increasing array of weaponry
was used including cluster bombs and missiles tipped with depleted
uranium (DU). This was carried out under the auspices of downgrading
Yugoslavia’s military capability as the term “dual-use” was stretched to
efface any meaningful distinction between military and civilian
installations. The report cites several cases where existing
international law on discriminating between the former and the latter
were ignored by NATO.
Apart from the oil refinery neither of the case studies in the report
could qualify as playing a critical role militarily. The Zastava car
plant was not involved in arms production at the time. Moreover, even
where a military use can be proven this does not remove the need to
ensure that civilian fatalities are avoided.
The report notes that Article 35 of Additional Protocol I prohibits the
use of weaponry “of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary
suffering” and “methods or means of warfare which are intended, or may
be expected, to cause widespread, long term and severe damage to the
natural environment.”
Of the 19 NATO countries that took part in the bombings, 16 have
ratified Additional Protocol I. Turkey has not, France did so only after
the Operation Allied Force, while the US was signatory to the treaty but
did not ratify it. However, it did ratify the 1977 Convention on the
Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental
Modification Techniques (ENMOD). This came into effect after the Vietnam
War and forbids the use of the environment or environmental modification
as a means of warfare. The bombings of installations storing such large
quantities of toxic substances amounted to a form of chemical warfare.
NATO’s greatest crime was that against peace, the report continues. The
bombing was in breach of international law that only recognises military
force as an act of self-defence. The report cites the United Nations
Charter Article I, paragraph I which explains that its main objective
is: “To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to
take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of
threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts or other breaches
of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity
with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or
settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a
breach of the peace.”
It was to circumvent opposition within the United Nations Security
Council that America launched its military offensive through NATO. At no
stage can it be credibly argued that all means towards a peaceful
settlement in the Kosovo conflict had been exhausted, the report insists.
The US committed over 700 of the 1055 aircraft used in Operation Allied
Force and US aircraft flew more than 29,000 of the 38,000 sorties flown
during the campaign. However, it is impossible to say whether it was US
aircraft that bombed the facilities in Pancevo and Kragujevac as this
information has not been declassified. Attempts by IEER to obtain the
targeting criteria used during the bombings under the Freedom of
Information Act was rejected by the US Department of Defense, which
handed over 42 blank pages marked “classified”. An analysis of Yugoslav
bombing campaign carried out this year by the US General Accounting
Office, the investigative arm of Congress, remains classified as well.
Copyright 1998-2002
World Socialist Web Site
All rights reserved
World Socialist Web Site www.wsws.org
WSWS : News & Analysis : Europe : The Balkans
Long-term environmental damage due to NATO bombing in Yugoslavia
By Tony Robson
10 December 2002
The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 breached international
humanitarian law and caused long-term environmental damage, a report by
the American based research group, Institute for Energy and
Environmental Research (IEER), has found.
The IEER carried out a case study of two industrial facilities targeted
by NATO in Operation Allied Force. The Pancevo industrial complex,
consisting of a petrochemical and fertiliser plant as well as an oil
refinery, is situated 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Belgrade. The
Zastava car plant in Kragujevac is 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of
Belgrade.
The Pancevo plant stands at the confluence of the River Tamis and the
Danube while Zastava is located on the Lepenica River, a tributary of
the Velika Morava, which in turn meets the Danube 60 kilometres
downstream. After the bombings, toxic chemicals gushed into the waters
of Europe’s second largest river. Civilians living near the plants
became vulnerable to major health risks from contamination of the
atmosphere, food produced locally and the water supply.
The authors caution, “As modern warfare becomes more technologically
sophisticated and targeting more precise, it is essential not to succumb
to the idea that the damage on the ground is also precise and limited.
It may be in some cases, but precise bombing does not always yield
precise or limited damage. As this study indicates, the health and
environmental consequences of precision bombing can affect unborn
generations far into the future, even when the bombs are entirely
successfully in finding their targets.”
The IEER chose the two facilities as case studies because NATO had
carefully selected them as targets. Pancevo and Kragujevac are two of
four areas designated as environmental “hotspots” by the international
body charged with overseeing the post-war cleanup operation, the United
Nations Environmental Program Balkan Task Force (UNEP/BTF.) The report’s
pollution estimates are based largely upon surveys conducted by the
UNEP/BTF in the immediate aftermath of Operation Allied Force. The
majority of the pollutants dealt with in the report can be found in the
Top Twenty Hazardous Substances listed by the Agency for Toxic
Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR).
Pancevo
Three people were killed directly by NATO bombing of the industrial
complex when it was hit repeatedly during April 1999. The NIS Oil
Refinery was the most heavily targeted and was bombed as late as June.
The report concentrates on the major contamination by mercury and
1,2-dichlorethane. Eight metric tonnes and 2,100 metric tonnes were
released of the toxic chemicals respectively. The former is known to
cause brain and digestive disorders and lead to birth defects, while the
latter is classified as a probable human carcinogen and can attack the
nervous system. Both are known to percolate rapidly into the groundwater
when released into the soil, threatening the water supply. Until now
only the mercury spill has received immediate attention, as this is
highly volatile and the vapours pose an immediate threat. While large
amounts of the contaminated soil have been removed, there is still a
residual amount that has entered the groundwater.
The report warns about the lack of action to clear up the
1,2-dichlorethane spill. Fifty percent was released into the ground with
the remainder in the plant’s waste channel. The report explains, “The
fact that the area of contamination has not really spread
1,2-dichlorethane on the surface indicates that any movement from a
surface spill would be downward toward the [local] aquifer. As described
earlier, once contamination has reached the aquifer, it spreads
horizontally in the direction of the groundwater flow” ( Precision
Bombing, Widespread Harm by Sriram Gopal and Nicole Deller, Institute
for Energy and Environmental Research, page.38).
The US Environmental Protection Agency’s regulation for the
concentration of 1,2-dichlorethane in drinking water is set at five
micrograms per litre. The concentrations found in the groundwater around
Pancevo exceeded that by several thousand times in some instances. This
constitutes the main long-term threat in the area as the chemical has a
half-life of 30 years.
Additional sources of toxic pollutants in the area are those released by
fires caused by NATO bombing. At the petrochemical plant, 460 metric
tonnes of vinyl chloride were incinerated whilst 62,000 metric tonnes of
oil and oil related products were burnt at the oil refinery. The result
was a release of hydrochloric acid fumes and nitrogen and sulphur
compounds, which cause respiratory problems. The report states that the
fires at the oil refinery probably released significant amounts of
sulphur dioxide and nitrates, “These two compounds are associated with
acid rain that results from industrial activities.”
A reporter who visited the area noted, “The repeated air strikes on the
industrial complex, which covers several acres, culminated in three huge
hits at 1.00 a.m. on April 18. The bombs sent fireballs into the air and
enveloped Pancevo in clouds of black smoke and milky white gasses.
Flames leapt from the facilities for 10 days.”
An estimated 1,500 tonnes of vinyl chloride, 3,000 times higher than
permitted levels, burned into the air or poured into the soil and river,
according to municipal officials in Pancevo. This has left the banks of
the river edged with white foam that still clogs the canals around the
town. Huge quantities of other noxious chemicals burned or gushed out of
storage facilities, including an estimated 15,000 tonnes of ammonia, 800
tonnes of hydrochloric acid, 250 tonnes of liquid chlorine, vast
quantities of dioxin (a component of Agent Orange and other defoliants)
and 100 tonnes of mercury.
By the dawn of the night attack, dozens of people were hospitalised
gasping for air, or were temporarily blinded or unable to digest food,
witnesses said. At its peak, on the night of April 18, the number of
people evacuated from the town and surrounding villages reached 80,000,
approximately one-tenth of the population.
Kragujevac
The Zastava car plant in Kragujevac, a town with a population of
150,000, was bombed twice, once on April 9 and again on April 12, 1999.
It was hit with a dozen bombs. Before the imposition of sanctions, this
was one of the largest industrial plants in the whole of the Balkans.
In an attempt to deter NATO air strikes, the workers and management at
the plant issued an open letter three days after Operation Allied Force
began explaining that they were forming a human shield around the site.
NATO didn’t alter its plans and 124 people were injured in the
subsequent bombing.
In a further appeal the workers explained, “Tonight, the 9th of April,
the Zastava factory plants in Kragujevac were bombed. The live shield
was broken through. This bombardment has inflicted severe damage to the
factory equipment and almost completely destroyed the energy supply
complex that served not only the Zastava factory, but also the heating
needs of the entire city of Kragujevac: its residential houses, schools,
faculties, hospitals....” [ World Socialist Web Site, April 13, 1999
Workers at Serb car plant bombed by NATO make appeal to world public,
http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/apr1999/zast-a13.shtml%5d
The report concentrates on the dangers posed by the release of
Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), a mix of 209 individual chlorinated
compounds generally used as coolants and lubricants in transformers and
other electrical equipment. Since 1977 their manufacture has been
stopped in the US because they are known to pose a severe health risk.
According to ATSDR, the discharge or accidental release of 1 pound or
more of PCBs into the environment should be reported immediately to the
Environmental Protection Agency. It is a probable human carcinogen and
can cause endocrine disruption.
The power station, assembly line, paint shop and computer centre
suffered either major damage or total destruction. Two transformers were
hit and leaked PCBs into the surrounding area. From one transformer
alone 1,400 litres of pyralene oil (transformer oil composed of PCBs and
another highly toxic substance, tricholrobenzenes, otherwise known as
“trike”) leaked into the floor and waste pits. Workers involved in the
initial clean up did not wear protective clothing and some were taken ill.
The transformer at the power station leaked unknown quantities of PCBs
into the Lepenica River via the sewage system. The gravel basin
underneath the transformer was unable to cope with the volume that was
released and the concentrations of PCBs around the rainwater drain were
higher than inside the plant. The operation to remove the contamination
within the plant has largely been completed by UNEP/BTF, but the same
cannot be said about the drainage system outside. Flooding during July
1999 may have spread pollutants in the waterways to nearby low-lying
agricultural areas. Tests for PCB contamination have not been conducted
on the water wells on the shores of the Morava River by either the
city’s public health institute or UNEP/BTF.
The issue of adequate funding raises the question of liability for the
damages, something that NATO refuses to accept responsibility for. To
make matters worse, other Balkan countries are making compensation
claims against Serbia. The report cites the fact that Hungary has
demanded that Serbia refund orders paid for in advance from the
petrochemical plants destroyed during the bombing.
Violation of international humanitarian law
NATO maintained that its military offensive against Yugoslavia was
justified on humanitarian grounds. However, the report questions the
moral and legal authority of Operation Allied Force. NATO’s military
action did not comply with the Geneva Convention and the laws protecting
the lives of non-combatants adopted in 1949 and the two Additional
Protocols that became international law in 1978. Two years ago, Amnesty
International (AI) found NATO responsible for perpetuating war crimes
after demonstrating that it had violated these laws.
While the IEER estimate the number of civilians killed during Operation
Allied Force at 500, Christopher Layne writing for the Cato Institute
estimates that between 1,200 and 2,000 civilians were killed.
As Operation Allied Force progressed, an increasing array of weaponry
was used including cluster bombs and missiles tipped with depleted
uranium (DU). This was carried out under the auspices of downgrading
Yugoslavia’s military capability as the term “dual-use” was stretched to
efface any meaningful distinction between military and civilian
installations. The report cites several cases where existing
international law on discriminating between the former and the latter
were ignored by NATO.
Apart from the oil refinery neither of the case studies in the report
could qualify as playing a critical role militarily. The Zastava car
plant was not involved in arms production at the time. Moreover, even
where a military use can be proven this does not remove the need to
ensure that civilian fatalities are avoided.
The report notes that Article 35 of Additional Protocol I prohibits the
use of weaponry “of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary
suffering” and “methods or means of warfare which are intended, or may
be expected, to cause widespread, long term and severe damage to the
natural environment.”
Of the 19 NATO countries that took part in the bombings, 16 have
ratified Additional Protocol I. Turkey has not, France did so only after
the Operation Allied Force, while the US was signatory to the treaty but
did not ratify it. However, it did ratify the 1977 Convention on the
Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental
Modification Techniques (ENMOD). This came into effect after the Vietnam
War and forbids the use of the environment or environmental modification
as a means of warfare. The bombings of installations storing such large
quantities of toxic substances amounted to a form of chemical warfare.
NATO’s greatest crime was that against peace, the report continues. The
bombing was in breach of international law that only recognises military
force as an act of self-defence. The report cites the United Nations
Charter Article I, paragraph I which explains that its main objective
is: “To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to
take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of
threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts or other breaches
of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity
with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or
settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a
breach of the peace.”
It was to circumvent opposition within the United Nations Security
Council that America launched its military offensive through NATO. At no
stage can it be credibly argued that all means towards a peaceful
settlement in the Kosovo conflict had been exhausted, the report insists.
The US committed over 700 of the 1055 aircraft used in Operation Allied
Force and US aircraft flew more than 29,000 of the 38,000 sorties flown
during the campaign. However, it is impossible to say whether it was US
aircraft that bombed the facilities in Pancevo and Kragujevac as this
information has not been declassified. Attempts by IEER to obtain the
targeting criteria used during the bombings under the Freedom of
Information Act was rejected by the US Department of Defense, which
handed over 42 blank pages marked “classified”. An analysis of Yugoslav
bombing campaign carried out this year by the US General Accounting
Office, the investigative arm of Congress, remains classified as well.
Copyright 1998-2002
World Socialist Web Site
All rights reserved