---------- Initial Header -----------
From : Rick Rozoff
Date : Wed, 11 Dec 2002 03:46:58 -0800 (PST)
Subject : Balkan Syndrome Resurrected
http://www.tol.cz/look/BRR/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=9&NrIssue=1&NrSection=4&NrArticle=8027
Transitions Online (Open Society Institute)
December 10, 2002
Balkan Syndrome Resurrected
-During NATO’s 1994 and 1995 bombings of Bosnian Serb
positions around Sarajevo, NATO aircraft used
munitions containing depleted uranium, a slightly
radioactive heavy metal that is effective in piercing
armor. Most of those bombs were fired in Hadzici. In
one day in October 1995 alone, NATO planes fired 300
projectiles into the Sarajevo suburb. According to the
Bosnian government, NATO forces fired some 10,800
rounds of 30mm armor-piercing projectiles during the
war.
-In her report, Jovanovic wrote that since the end of
the war, 25 percent of wartime Hadzici residents have
died of various cancers, tumors, and heart attacks. In
Bratunac alone in the last four years, 500 of the
5,000 Hadzici refugees have died. One Hadzici refugee
dies every three to four days, and every second one
dies from cancer.
The UN releases a study that lends credence to health
experts’ cries that NATO’s wartime uranium-tipped
weapons have left behind a deadly, cancerous legacy.
by Anes Alic and Dragan Stanimirovic
SARAJEVO and BANJA LUKA, Bosnia and Herzegovina--After
two years of silence, Balkan Syndrome--better known as
the depleted uranium affair--is getting its due
attention. The United Nations Environmental Protection
Agency (UNEP) in November confirmed the dangerous
presence of depleted uranium in areas of Bosnia bombed
by NATO aircraft in 1994 and 1995, which Bosnian
officials say has led to a shocking increase in
cancer-related deaths.
UN experts confirmed the discovery of two locations
containing a high level of radiation from depleted
uranium from NATO bombings: the Sarajevo suburb of
Hadzici, where a munitions warehouse and a tank-repair
facility are located, and a Bosnian Serb army barracks
in Han-Pijesak, also near Sarajevo. Investigators
discovered uranium materials and dust inside the
buildings.
The UNEP task force says that depleted uranium can
create an increase in uranium concentration 100 times
the natural levels contained in groundwater.
Upon the release of the November UN expert study on
depleted uranium, health officials from Republika
Srpska confirmed that uranium has indeed caused many
civilian deaths in those two regions. Health officials
say that civilian deaths in those regions are double
what they are in other, unaffected regions.
Earlier this year, the Bosnian government invited 17
international experts to investigate rumors that
depleted uranium is still present in the environment
and may be adversely affecting the health not only of
the local population but also of international
peacekeepers stationed in Bosnia.
The team of experts investigated 14 separate locations
over a one-month period, finding traces of radiation
in three places. Investigators were not able to
examine eight other locations--four small towns near
Sarajevo and four others in eastern Bosnia--deemed to
be too risky due to the presence of land mines.
Pekka Haavisto, who heads the UNEP task force, told
the daily Oslobodjenje: “We are concerned about the
situation at the Hadzici tank-repair facility and the
Han-Pijesak barracks and the health condition of the
citizens.” Haavisto said that after being analyzed in
Western European laboratories, the final results would
be released in March 2003.
Recent years have brought growing concern among
experts that shrapnel from depleted uranium-tipped
weapons from could cause cancer or other
radiation-related problems. According to health
experts, dust particles from depleted uranium could be
inhaled, or the substance could leach into the ground
and the water supply.
AFTEREFFECTS
During NATO’s 1994 and 1995 bombings of Bosnian Serb
positions around Sarajevo, NATO aircraft used
munitions containing depleted uranium, a slightly
radioactive heavy metal that is effective in piercing
armor. Most of those bombs were fired in Hadzici. In
one day in October 1995 alone, NATO planes fired 300
projectiles into the Sarajevo suburb. According to the
Bosnian government, NATO forces fired some 10,800
rounds of 30mm armor-piercing projectiles during the
war.
Under the November 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement, some
Sarajevo suburbs held by Serbs during the war came
under the control of the mostly Bosniak and Bosnian
Croat federation entity of Bosnia. One of those
suburbs was Hadzici. Most of the approximately 30,000
Bosnian Serbs who lived there fled their homes and
moved as refugees to other parts of the Republika
Srpska entity of Bosnia and to Yugoslavia.
Some 5,000 civilians from Hadzici fled to Bratunac, in
eastern Republika Srpska. Medical analysis conducted
by the local Institute for Health in 1998 showed that
the mortality of Hadzici refugees was double the
mortality rate for the rest of Bratunac’s residents.
The study’s author, Dr. Slavica Jovanovic, told the
SRNA news agency that she has no doubt that depleted
uranium is responsible for the increased death rate of
those people.
“We can say that the mortality rate of the refugee
population is greater because of high stress, poor
nutrition, and bad living conditions. But we were
shocked to discover that deaths among Hadzici’s
refugees are much more numerous than [among] other
[refugees],” Jovanovic told SRNA. She blamed those
deaths on the fact that the refugees from Hadzici were
exposed to radiation because they lived close to the
bombed locations.
In her report, Jovanovic wrote that since the end of
the war, 25 percent of wartime Hadzici residents have
died of various cancers, tumors, and heart attacks. In
Bratunac alone in the last four years, 500 of the
5,000 Hadzici refugees have died. One Hadzici refugee
dies every three to four days, and every second one
dies from cancer.
Jovanovic said that she could not say for sure how
many Hadzici refugees have cancer because many do not
check themselves into hospitals since they cannot
afford medical treatment. The doctor said she is
hoping that the international community will step in
and find some way to examine the town’s refugee
population and help provide treatment.
After the UNEP report was released, the Republika
Srpska army evacuated soldiers from its barracks in
Han-Pijesak. Officials say that organized medical
exams will soon begin for soldiers who were in the
barracks during the past seven years.
At the same time, medical workers from the federation
entity are also sending out warnings to people still
living in Hadzici--but they are expanding their
warning to the general public, which they fear could
also be affected by the presence of depleted uranium.
Federation health officials say they are also worried
that that radiation has caused an increase in the
number of diseases such as cancers--especially
leukemia--tumors, cerebral palsy, and others.
After the reintegration of Hadzici into the federation
entity, prewar Bosniak and Croat workers began
cleaning out the munitions warehouse and tank-repair
facility, removing more than 1,000 truckloads of
garbage and munitions
Now those workers fear they too have been
contaminated. Unfortunately, they will have to wait to
find out. Workers have begun undergoing medical
examinations, but the results will not be available
until April 2003. What’s more, despite UNEP warnings
to immediately evacuate all workers because of danger
of inhaling depleted uranium dust, some workers from
Hadzici are still on duty.
“Believe me, I am very afraid. But if I have been
inhaling radiation for the past seven years, I can do
it until they publish the final results,” Zijad
Fazlic, director of the Hadzici tank-repair facility,
told TOL on November 24. “All we can do now is to wait
for the results. I don’t know what we are going to do,
but if I had known this, I would never have come here
to work. Families of workers also live here,” he said.
Soon after the UNEP report was published, federation
medical officials started to speculate that it is
possible that depleted uranium is the cause for the
shocking jump in cases of leukemia in children.
“It has not yet been proven, but we cannot see
anything else except uranium,” Edo Hasanbegovic,
director of the ontological department in Sarajevo’s
Kosevo clinic, told the daily Oslobodjenje on 21
November.
Hasanbegovic said that research is set to begin soon
to find out whether a connection can be made between
the increase in diseases and depleted uranium. But he
said he is certain that depleted uranium is one of the
elements that causes leukemia in Bosnia. “That we can
claim without medical research. Every year we have a
50 percent to 70 percent increase in the number of new
underage patients,” said Hasanbegovic.
PLAYING CATCH-UP
Lejla Saracevic, chief of radiobiology at Sarajevo
University, told TOL on 29 November that before the
depleted uranium affair was made known to the public,
local experts had asked the government to allow them
to conduct research in potentially contaminated areas.
The government, however, refused, saying there was
insufficient money in the budget for such
research--research Saracevic said costs little.
Saracevic said that once the most critical locations
have been decontaminated, it is necessary to find out
how much of the rest of the region is radioactive. “It
has been a long time. In seven years the uranium has
migrated into the ground and through the water. It is
very possible that it now exists in our vegetation and
possibly in our food. Our priority is to check that
now,” she said.
Before the war in Bosnia, the annual number of new
cases of children with leukemia was never greater than
13. Since the end of the war, that number has grown
every year: Last year it was 26. The situation is the
same with other cancers: Every year the number grows.
And almost 80 percent of those new cases are coming
from areas that were exposed to the radiation of
depleted uranium--areas that were bombed during the
war.
The so-called Balkan Syndrome affair first aroused
attention in early 2001, when Italian media published
reports that one Italian soldier who had served in
Bosnia had died of leukemia and that five more were
very ill. The Italian media blamed the sicknesses on
NATO’s use of depleted uranium in its weapons.
At the time, all governments denied that NATO was
using uranium-tipped munitions. Nonetheless, medical
examinations of soldiers were promptly begun, with
many being diagnosed with leukemia and other forms of
cancer.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anes Alic is TOL’s correspondent in Sarajevo. Dragan
Stanimirovic is TOL’s correspondent in Banja Luka.
From : Rick Rozoff
Date : Wed, 11 Dec 2002 03:46:58 -0800 (PST)
Subject : Balkan Syndrome Resurrected
http://www.tol.cz/look/BRR/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=9&NrIssue=1&NrSection=4&NrArticle=8027
Transitions Online (Open Society Institute)
December 10, 2002
Balkan Syndrome Resurrected
-During NATO’s 1994 and 1995 bombings of Bosnian Serb
positions around Sarajevo, NATO aircraft used
munitions containing depleted uranium, a slightly
radioactive heavy metal that is effective in piercing
armor. Most of those bombs were fired in Hadzici. In
one day in October 1995 alone, NATO planes fired 300
projectiles into the Sarajevo suburb. According to the
Bosnian government, NATO forces fired some 10,800
rounds of 30mm armor-piercing projectiles during the
war.
-In her report, Jovanovic wrote that since the end of
the war, 25 percent of wartime Hadzici residents have
died of various cancers, tumors, and heart attacks. In
Bratunac alone in the last four years, 500 of the
5,000 Hadzici refugees have died. One Hadzici refugee
dies every three to four days, and every second one
dies from cancer.
The UN releases a study that lends credence to health
experts’ cries that NATO’s wartime uranium-tipped
weapons have left behind a deadly, cancerous legacy.
by Anes Alic and Dragan Stanimirovic
SARAJEVO and BANJA LUKA, Bosnia and Herzegovina--After
two years of silence, Balkan Syndrome--better known as
the depleted uranium affair--is getting its due
attention. The United Nations Environmental Protection
Agency (UNEP) in November confirmed the dangerous
presence of depleted uranium in areas of Bosnia bombed
by NATO aircraft in 1994 and 1995, which Bosnian
officials say has led to a shocking increase in
cancer-related deaths.
UN experts confirmed the discovery of two locations
containing a high level of radiation from depleted
uranium from NATO bombings: the Sarajevo suburb of
Hadzici, where a munitions warehouse and a tank-repair
facility are located, and a Bosnian Serb army barracks
in Han-Pijesak, also near Sarajevo. Investigators
discovered uranium materials and dust inside the
buildings.
The UNEP task force says that depleted uranium can
create an increase in uranium concentration 100 times
the natural levels contained in groundwater.
Upon the release of the November UN expert study on
depleted uranium, health officials from Republika
Srpska confirmed that uranium has indeed caused many
civilian deaths in those two regions. Health officials
say that civilian deaths in those regions are double
what they are in other, unaffected regions.
Earlier this year, the Bosnian government invited 17
international experts to investigate rumors that
depleted uranium is still present in the environment
and may be adversely affecting the health not only of
the local population but also of international
peacekeepers stationed in Bosnia.
The team of experts investigated 14 separate locations
over a one-month period, finding traces of radiation
in three places. Investigators were not able to
examine eight other locations--four small towns near
Sarajevo and four others in eastern Bosnia--deemed to
be too risky due to the presence of land mines.
Pekka Haavisto, who heads the UNEP task force, told
the daily Oslobodjenje: “We are concerned about the
situation at the Hadzici tank-repair facility and the
Han-Pijesak barracks and the health condition of the
citizens.” Haavisto said that after being analyzed in
Western European laboratories, the final results would
be released in March 2003.
Recent years have brought growing concern among
experts that shrapnel from depleted uranium-tipped
weapons from could cause cancer or other
radiation-related problems. According to health
experts, dust particles from depleted uranium could be
inhaled, or the substance could leach into the ground
and the water supply.
AFTEREFFECTS
During NATO’s 1994 and 1995 bombings of Bosnian Serb
positions around Sarajevo, NATO aircraft used
munitions containing depleted uranium, a slightly
radioactive heavy metal that is effective in piercing
armor. Most of those bombs were fired in Hadzici. In
one day in October 1995 alone, NATO planes fired 300
projectiles into the Sarajevo suburb. According to the
Bosnian government, NATO forces fired some 10,800
rounds of 30mm armor-piercing projectiles during the
war.
Under the November 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement, some
Sarajevo suburbs held by Serbs during the war came
under the control of the mostly Bosniak and Bosnian
Croat federation entity of Bosnia. One of those
suburbs was Hadzici. Most of the approximately 30,000
Bosnian Serbs who lived there fled their homes and
moved as refugees to other parts of the Republika
Srpska entity of Bosnia and to Yugoslavia.
Some 5,000 civilians from Hadzici fled to Bratunac, in
eastern Republika Srpska. Medical analysis conducted
by the local Institute for Health in 1998 showed that
the mortality of Hadzici refugees was double the
mortality rate for the rest of Bratunac’s residents.
The study’s author, Dr. Slavica Jovanovic, told the
SRNA news agency that she has no doubt that depleted
uranium is responsible for the increased death rate of
those people.
“We can say that the mortality rate of the refugee
population is greater because of high stress, poor
nutrition, and bad living conditions. But we were
shocked to discover that deaths among Hadzici’s
refugees are much more numerous than [among] other
[refugees],” Jovanovic told SRNA. She blamed those
deaths on the fact that the refugees from Hadzici were
exposed to radiation because they lived close to the
bombed locations.
In her report, Jovanovic wrote that since the end of
the war, 25 percent of wartime Hadzici residents have
died of various cancers, tumors, and heart attacks. In
Bratunac alone in the last four years, 500 of the
5,000 Hadzici refugees have died. One Hadzici refugee
dies every three to four days, and every second one
dies from cancer.
Jovanovic said that she could not say for sure how
many Hadzici refugees have cancer because many do not
check themselves into hospitals since they cannot
afford medical treatment. The doctor said she is
hoping that the international community will step in
and find some way to examine the town’s refugee
population and help provide treatment.
After the UNEP report was released, the Republika
Srpska army evacuated soldiers from its barracks in
Han-Pijesak. Officials say that organized medical
exams will soon begin for soldiers who were in the
barracks during the past seven years.
At the same time, medical workers from the federation
entity are also sending out warnings to people still
living in Hadzici--but they are expanding their
warning to the general public, which they fear could
also be affected by the presence of depleted uranium.
Federation health officials say they are also worried
that that radiation has caused an increase in the
number of diseases such as cancers--especially
leukemia--tumors, cerebral palsy, and others.
After the reintegration of Hadzici into the federation
entity, prewar Bosniak and Croat workers began
cleaning out the munitions warehouse and tank-repair
facility, removing more than 1,000 truckloads of
garbage and munitions
Now those workers fear they too have been
contaminated. Unfortunately, they will have to wait to
find out. Workers have begun undergoing medical
examinations, but the results will not be available
until April 2003. What’s more, despite UNEP warnings
to immediately evacuate all workers because of danger
of inhaling depleted uranium dust, some workers from
Hadzici are still on duty.
“Believe me, I am very afraid. But if I have been
inhaling radiation for the past seven years, I can do
it until they publish the final results,” Zijad
Fazlic, director of the Hadzici tank-repair facility,
told TOL on November 24. “All we can do now is to wait
for the results. I don’t know what we are going to do,
but if I had known this, I would never have come here
to work. Families of workers also live here,” he said.
Soon after the UNEP report was published, federation
medical officials started to speculate that it is
possible that depleted uranium is the cause for the
shocking jump in cases of leukemia in children.
“It has not yet been proven, but we cannot see
anything else except uranium,” Edo Hasanbegovic,
director of the ontological department in Sarajevo’s
Kosevo clinic, told the daily Oslobodjenje on 21
November.
Hasanbegovic said that research is set to begin soon
to find out whether a connection can be made between
the increase in diseases and depleted uranium. But he
said he is certain that depleted uranium is one of the
elements that causes leukemia in Bosnia. “That we can
claim without medical research. Every year we have a
50 percent to 70 percent increase in the number of new
underage patients,” said Hasanbegovic.
PLAYING CATCH-UP
Lejla Saracevic, chief of radiobiology at Sarajevo
University, told TOL on 29 November that before the
depleted uranium affair was made known to the public,
local experts had asked the government to allow them
to conduct research in potentially contaminated areas.
The government, however, refused, saying there was
insufficient money in the budget for such
research--research Saracevic said costs little.
Saracevic said that once the most critical locations
have been decontaminated, it is necessary to find out
how much of the rest of the region is radioactive. “It
has been a long time. In seven years the uranium has
migrated into the ground and through the water. It is
very possible that it now exists in our vegetation and
possibly in our food. Our priority is to check that
now,” she said.
Before the war in Bosnia, the annual number of new
cases of children with leukemia was never greater than
13. Since the end of the war, that number has grown
every year: Last year it was 26. The situation is the
same with other cancers: Every year the number grows.
And almost 80 percent of those new cases are coming
from areas that were exposed to the radiation of
depleted uranium--areas that were bombed during the
war.
The so-called Balkan Syndrome affair first aroused
attention in early 2001, when Italian media published
reports that one Italian soldier who had served in
Bosnia had died of leukemia and that five more were
very ill. The Italian media blamed the sicknesses on
NATO’s use of depleted uranium in its weapons.
At the time, all governments denied that NATO was
using uranium-tipped munitions. Nonetheless, medical
examinations of soldiers were promptly begun, with
many being diagnosed with leukemia and other forms of
cancer.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anes Alic is TOL’s correspondent in Sarajevo. Dragan
Stanimirovic is TOL’s correspondent in Banja Luka.