Balkan Syndrome- DU in Kosovo & Iraq

[Sabrina Fusari <safusar@tin.it>]

>International Action Center
>39 West 14th St., #206, NY, NY 10011  
>212-633-6646  Fax: 212-633-2889
>iacenter@iacenter.org
>www.iacenter.org
>Ramsey Clark, Chairperson
>
>January 7, 2001
>For Immediate release
>Press Contact: Deirdre Sinnott
>
>LEUKEMIA OUTBREAK AMONG TROOPS CAUSES TURMOIL IN 
>NATO
>RAMSEY CLARK DEMANDS BAN ON DEPLETED URANIUM
>
>Deaths from leukemia of Italian, Belgian, Spanish, Portuguese and  other
>NATO troops occupying Bosnia or Kosovo and other illnesses  have aroused a
>storm of popular anger and concern about dangers to  NATO troops stationed
>in the region from the residue of depleted-
>uranium weapons.
>
>By Jan. 6, French, Belgian, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and other 
>governments had demanded that NATO identify the areas hit in Bosnia  and
>Kosovo by DU shells and to clarify the dangers. 
>
>Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who is a founder of the 
>International Action Center, has long been an opponent of DU  weapons. On
>Jan. 6th  he once again raised his call for a ban of the use of these
>weapons that he first raised in 1996. [attached to this news release]
>Since then conferences in Baghdad, Iraq, in 1999 and Gijon, Spain in 2000
>have also demanded a ban on DU use.
>
>"This new outbreak of leukemia among European soldiers has 
>reinforced what we said before," said Clark from New York on Jan. 6. "Is
>it acceptable by any human standards that we would permit one shell of
>depleted uranium to be manufactured, to be stored, to be used? No! Stop it
>now!"
>
>Clark is leaving January 12, 2001 for the fourth trip large delegation to
>Iraq the IAC has organized to challenge sanctions against that country. He
>said that "along with investigating the dangers to NATO soldiers and
>guarding their health, the Pentagon should be responsible for the damage
>caused in Iraq and in Yugoslavia by these weapons and should clean them
>up."
>
>DU is the waste residue made from the uranium enrichment process.  This
>radioactive and toxic substance, 1.7 times as dense as lead, is used to
>make shells that penetrate steel armor. 
>
>Many people, including physicists and physicians, believe that uranium-
>oxide dust inhaled or ingested by troops in the Gulf War is the cause, or
>a contributing cause, of the "Gulf-War Syndrome". Of the approximately
>697,000 U.S. troops stationed in the Gulf during the war, over 100,000
>veterans are now chronically ill. Cancer rates in southern Iraq have
>increased dramatically. For example ovarian cancer in women has increased
>by sixteen fold.
>
>The Pentagon used DU in large amounts in Iraq in 1991, in Bosnia in  1995
>and in Kosovo in 1999.
>
>In Iraq the U.S. Airforce A-10 aircraft fired approximately 940,000  30mm
>rounds. In addition 14,000 large caliber DU tank rounds of  105mm were
>fired. By the end of the war over 600,000 pounds of  uranium from spent
>rounds lay scattered across Iraq and Kuwait.
>
>In Yugoslavia the current number of rounds that the U.S. government 
>admits to firing are 31,000. The UN announced on January 5 the it had
>found evidence of radioactivity at 8 of the 11 sites tested in Kosovo. The
>11 sites tested were among 112 sites in Kosovo hit by DU rounds. A United
>Nations report in May, 2000 warned that  Kosovo's water could be so
>contaminated as to be  unfit to drink.
>
>The number of targets hit by DU rounds through out the rest of  Yugoslavia
>was not reported. About 10,000 rounds were fired by U.S.  NATO forces in
>Bosnia in 1994-95. 
>
>When Italian soldier Rinaldo Colombo died last September of leukemia, it
>brought the total of Italian soldiers believed to have died from "Balkans
>Syndrome" to five. By January nine cases of leukemia had been reported.
>
>In Belgium, five cases of cancer have been diagnosed in soldiers who were
>on duty in the Balkans. In Spain, two soldiers have also been affected.
>One died in October. Portuguese Corporal Hugo Paulino arrived home in
>Lisbon from Kosovo in mid-February complaining of headaches and feeling
>sick. He died on March 9 in the military hospital. According to his
>father, Luis Paulino, medical examinations revealed neither meningitis nor
>encephalitis. His father is certain "it was depleted uranium that killed
>him." 
>
>Investigations begin
>
>The Spanish government has launched a study of the health of the  32,000
>Spanish soldiers who have been in the Balkans. The 
>Portuguese government will examine 900 of its country's troops.
>
>Belgian Defense Minister Andre Flahaut wrote a letter Dec. 29 to Bjorn von
>Sydow, the defense minister of Sweden. That country takes over the
>European Union presidency Jan. 1. The letter called on EU defense
>ministers to discuss health problems suffered by troops stationed in
>Bosnia or Kosovo. 
>
>In mid-December the Italian government launched an inquiry into why  some
>of their military personnel have recently died of leukemia.  Defense
>Minister Sergio Mattarella had affirmed that "10,800 depleted uranium
>projectiles were fired by American aircraft" on Bosnia between 1994 and
>1995. Without naming them explicitly, Mattarella accused the U.S. military
>officials of hiding information about DU from allies. 
>
>John Catalinotto, a co-editor with Sara Flounders of the book the 
>International Action Center  published on this topic, "Metal of Dishonor:
>Depleted Uranium", commented on the new discovery of illness among
>European troops. The IAC also distributes a video with the same name,
>produced by the Peoples Video Network.
>
>Catalinotto said, "It's true the Pentagon avoids publicizing details of
>its use of DU weapons and has covered up the extent of DU use. That has
>been its policy from the beginning. At the same time there are all sorts
>of warnings in studies by the U.S. Army admitting that DU is dangerous.
>
>"Still," he added, there can be no doubt the NATO militaries knew the U.S.
>was using depleted-uranium shells, which are the usual U.S. anti- tank
>weapon. In Metal of Dishonor and in news releases in April 1999 we exposed
>DU's use in Bosnia and warned of its use in Kosovo. And during the 1999
>war the media prodded Pentagon spokespeople to admit publicly that U.S.
>A-10 planes were firing DU shells.
>
>"But the European population is furious that its youth are being  exposed
>to dangers. With the European governments, there's another  story. They
>knowingly took part in a dirty war of aggression against Yugoslavia. They
>hoped to get some of the spoils. 
>
>"Now only Washington, Berlin and London are getting spoils," said 
>Catalinotto, "while Italian and Portuguese troops are patrolling DU-
>polluted areas of Kosovo. And now [George W.] Bush says he wants  to pull
>troops out. There's a saying that 'When thieves fall out, honest people
>learn the truth.' There is an opportunity to learn the truth about DU
>right now."
>
>Sara Flounders, a director  of the International Action Center described
>the work of the DU Education Project based at the IAC. "The DU Education
>Project first helped to raise international awareness of the consequences
>of the Pentagon's use of radioactive weapons in Iraq. We were the first
>group to warn that the same weapons were being used in Bosnia in 1995 and
>in the 78 day bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999. We contacted anti-U.S. base
>movements in several countries and helped to expose the test firing and
>storage of DU munitions in Okinawa, Japan, in South Korea, in Vieques,
>Puerto Rico and the Israeli use of U.S. supplied, DU-armored tanks in the
>West Bank and Gaza."
>
>"In every country the U.S. government has first denied and then 
>stonewalled any discussion of the impact of radioactive weapons.  There is
>a total disregard for the consequences for their own soldiers and for the
>population of the occupied country. Only an aroused mass movement has
>dragged the truth out."
>
>[Metal of Dishonor: Depleted Uranium, both book and video, can be 
>purchased through www.leftbooks.com]