NATO ammette uso di uranio impoverito

[Alessandro Marescotti <kfqma at tin.it>]

>Resent-Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2000 16:32:22 +0100
>From: "Alessandro Gimona" <agimona at hotmail.com>
>To: pck-ecologia at peacelink.it
>Subject: NATO ammette uso di uranio impoverito
>
>La NATO ammette uso di uranio impoverito, comunque gli esperti sostengono 
>che le informazioni fornite sono ancora insufficienti.
>In coda, link al rapporto sul depleted uranium compilato dalla balkan task 
>force (BTF)di UNEP e UNCHS
>
>Spero interessi
>Alessandro Gimona
>
>
>
>UNEP/UNCHS News Release.  For information only.  Not an official record.
>
>Jointly issued by UNEP/UNCHS
>
>NATO CONFIRMS TO THE UNITED NATIONS,  USE OF
>DEPLETED URANIUM DURING THE KOSOVO CONFLICT
>GENEVA, 21 March 2000 -  The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has 
>confirmed to the United Nations that depleted uranium (DU) was used during 
>the Kosovo conflict.  But, according to the Joint UNEP/UNCHS Balkans Task 
>Force (BTF) the information provided is not of sufficient detail to 
>facilitate an accurate field assessment of the environmental and human 
>health consequences of its us at the present time.
>The new information on DU was sent to the United Nations  Secretary-General, 
>Kofi Annan from NATO Secretary-General, Lord Robertson and  states:
>"DU rounds were used whenever the A-10 engaged armour during Operation 
>Allied Force.  Therefore, it was used throughout Kosovo during approximately 
>100 missions... A total of approximately 31,000 rounds of DU ammunition were 
>used in operation Allied Force.  The major focus of these operations was in 
>an area west of the Pec-Dakovica-Prizren highway; in the area surrounding 
>Klina; in the area around Prizren; and in an area to the north of a line 
>joining Suva Reka and Urosevac.  However many missions using DU also took 
>place outside these areas."
>This information was reviewed yesterday by scientists from the BTF's Desk 
>Assessment Group on Depleted Uranium - an interagency group that was 
>established last year as part of the United Nations Environment Programme 
>(UNEP)-led assessment of the environmental consequences of the Kosovo 
>conflict.  Whilst welcoming the positive cooperation of NATO, the group, 
>which includes experts from the World Health Organization (WHO), the 
>International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN High Commissioner for 
>Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Department for Disarmament Affairs (DDA), and the 
>Swedish Radiation Protection Institute, concluded that despite the 
>additional information there was still insufficient data available on the 
>exact location of the DU ordnance to comprehensively carry out an objective 
>and scientifically based environmental and human health impact assessment in 
>Kosovo.
>The Group emphasized that the new information on DU should not be a cause of 
>widespread alarm.  However, it  also concluded that because of NATO's 
>confirmation that DU was used, the recommendations made in their October 
>1999 report should be followed.  The Group's report, which was based on the 
>then best available information, a hypothetical scenario and unverified 
>assumptions, recommends that at places where contamination has been 
>confirmed, measures should be taken to prevent access.  Local authorities 
>and people concerned should be informed of the possible risks and 
>appropriate precautionary measures.
>The conclusions of the BTF expert group have been forwarded to the UN 
>Secretary-General and the heads of other concerned UN agencies, as well as 
>UNMIK in Kosovo.
>In the report, "The Kosovo Conflict -
>Consequences for the Environment and Human Settlements", the BTF raised the 
>issue of the consequences to human health and the environment by the 
>possible use of depleted uranium.  The report recommended that a thorough 
>review of the health effects of exposure to DU should be undertaken.
>At yesterday's meeting in Geneva, the Desk Assessment Group was advised that 
>WHO is preparing a more general, "generic" report on the health effects of 
>DU.  That report should be available by the middle of May, 2000 and is not 
>specific to Kosovo.   The Royal Society (UK) is also preparing an 
>independent report on the DU topic.
>The issue of depleted uranium was only one part of last year's assessment 
>and the BTF's overall report concluded that the Kosovo conflict did not 
>cause an environmental catastrophe affecting the Balkans region as a whole, 
>but that pollution detected at four environmental "hot spots" (Pancevo, 
>Kragujevac, Novi Sad and Bor), is serious and poses a threat to human 
>health.  As part of the second phase of its work, the BTF is currently 
>preparing detailed environmental clean-up feasibility studies (for 
>submission to donors) at the four mentioned sites in Serbia.
>The BTF was set-up by Klaus Toepfer, Executive
>Director of the United Nations Environment
>Programme (UNEP) and UN Centre for Human
>Settlements, UNCHS
>(Habitat), in May 1999, to assess the
>environmental and human settlement consequences
>of the Balkans conflict. Under the leadership of
>the former Finnish
>Environment and Development Cooperation
>Minister, Pekka Haavisto, the BTF acted on the
>recommendation of an earlier UN mission to the
>region that a detailed
>assessment of the full extent of the
>environmental impact of the conflict be urgently carried out.   The BTF 
>report is available on the Web at http://www.grid.unep.ch/btf.
>
>
>
>For more information, please contact:  Tore J.
>Brevik, UNEP Spokesman/Director of
>Communications and Public Information, P.O. Box
>30552, Nairobi, Kenya; tel:  (254 2) 623292;
>fax:  62-3692; Email:  cpiinfo at unep.org or
>Robert Bisset, Office of the UNEP Spokesman and
>BTF Press Officer in Geneva on: +41-22-917-8598,
>Nairobi +254-2-623084, email: robert.bisset at unep.org.
>
>UNEP News Release 00/33
>
>______________________________________________________
>Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
>
>


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Alessandro Marescotti
c/o PeaceLink, c.p.2009, 74100 Taranto (Italy), ccp 13403746 
http://www.peacelink.it
Ricevo oltre 100 e-mail al giorno 
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Se mi scrivi, non inviare e-mail all'indirizzo kfqma at peacelink.it 
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