Depleted Uranium Haunts Kosovo and Iraq

Depleted Uranium Haunts Kosovo and Iraq 


by  Scott  Peterson






google_ad_client = "pub-1591488516340780";
/* 200x200, created 11/9/09 */
google_ad_slot = "9178639779";
google_ad_width = 200;
google_ad_height = 200;


google_protectAndRun("ads_core.google_render_ad", google_handleError, google_render_ad);
google_ad_client = "pub-1591488516340780";/* 200x200, created 5/22/09 */google_ad_slot = "1471974688";google_ad_width = 200;google_ad_height = 200;google_protectAndRun("ads_core.google_render_ad", google_handleError, google_render_ad);



	Global Research, November 5, 2006


	Middle East Report 



 Email this article to a friend
 Print this article


	

   
0diggsdigg
reddit_url='http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=3715'reddit_title='Depleted Uranium Haunts Kosovo and Iraq '

 
 


	
 Iraq
 and Kosovo may be thousands of miles apart, but they share the dubious 
distinction of contamination with radioactive residue from depleted 
uranium (DU) bullets used in American air strikes. After several years 
of silence, US officials finally admitted that 340 tons of DU were fired
 during the Gulf war. In Kosovo, American delays in providing details of
 quantities and target points have frustrated international efforts to 
assess health risks. Despite repeated requests, NATO waited almost a 
full year after the start of bombing in March 1999 to say that 31,000 DU
 bullets--a fraction of the number fired in Iraq--were fired by A-10 
"tankbuster" aircraft over Kosovo. A Belgrade report published this 
April estimates that about 50,000 DU bullets had been used in parts of 
Serbia and Montenegro as well as Kosovo. Evidence is plentiful on the 
ground that DU was used in heavily populated areas, and that civilians 
and returning refugees were never warned of the danger.
The 
high-density bullet is made of low-level radioactive waste left over 
from manufacturing nuclear fuel and bombs. DU bullets were designed in 
the 1970s to defeat top-line Soviet tanks. Some 20 nations now keep the 
world's best armor-piercing rounds in their arsenals. First used in 
combat during the Gulf war, they proved to be unmatched tank slayers. (A
 Pentagon official points to one other benefit: the US can give away its
 1.2 billion pound stockpile of radioactive waste to weapons 
manufacturers.) When DU smashes into a hard target, it pulverizes into 
breathable dust that remains radioactive for 4.5 billion years. American
 nuclear scientists have found that DU dust can travel at least 26 
miles. Scientists of the National Institute for Health Protection in 
Macedonia detected eight times higher than normal levels of alpha 
radiation--the primary type emitted by DU--in the air during the air 
war. Yugoslav soldiers have found DU rounds in Bujanovic in the south, 
and a Swiss-led international team found "serious radioactivity" when it
 dug up many rounds at a radio tower near Vranje.
Despite 
predicting that "every future battlefield will be contaminated" with DU,
 the Pentagon asserts that DU risk is minimal. But training materials 
developed in the 1990s require full protective gear and masks in 
contaminated areas, in line with Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) 
rules. The US military requires an NRC license to handle the smallest 
amount of the restricted material. A US Army-commissioned health report 
issued just days before the Gulf war noted that radiation is linked with
 cancer and said that "no dose [of DU] is so low that the probability of
 effect is zero." Still, the Pentagon argues that "residual DU from 
battlefields in Kosovo does not pose a significant risk to human 
health."
US soldiers 
partly ascribe Gulf war syndrome to DU exposure. British troops deployed
 in Kosovo are suing their defense ministry for ailments they attribute 
to DU. The UN refugee agency in Kosovo now includes papers in personnel 
files to note work in potentially DU-contaminated areas. In Kosovo, 
Western de-mining groups were told by NATO to "exercise caution" and not
 to climb on destroyed armored vehicles. Last October Col. Eric Daxon, 
the US Army's top radiological expert, said: "The best thing I can tell 
anybody about entering a contaminated vehicle or damaged vehicle is: 
'Don't do it. It is a dangerous place to be.'"
But that 
message never got through to hundreds of thousands of Kosovar Albanians,
 in whose name the Kosovo campaign was fought, and whose DU exposure 
could be highest. Rexh Himaj, a mechanic who lost most of his tools 
during the conflict, didn't think twice about salvaging parts from 
destroyed Serbian vehicles. Like thousands of returning refugees, he was
 just glad to get back to work.
But the 
concrete surface of a Serbian military base on the west side of 
Djakovica where I found him working was pockmarked with DU hits, as was 
the nearby road. The ground was littered with spent aluminum shell 
casings that are unique to 30 mm DU bullets. A boy climbed on a 
burned-out armored vehicle, then jumped off and kicked at a shell 
casing.
"Now I know 
it's dangerous, but that is a risk I've got to take," said Himaj, when 
the telltale casings are explained. His hands were greasy-black with 
work. "If [the Americans] didn't use this stuff, then we might still 
have Serbs here. On the other hand...I hope they clean it up." But 
cleanup is virtually impossible. One US Defense Department report lists 
eight soil decontamination techniques, including multiple nitric acid 
washes, but "in no case did the achieved separation suffice to allow 
unrestricted disposal."
A 
confidential preliminary UN report leaked in May 1999, as the bombing 
continued, did not mince words: "This type of ammunition is nuclear 
waste, and its use is very dangerous and harmful," it said. After NATO 
released its figures, the UN recommended that "measures should be taken 
to prevent access." For Kosovars, like Iraqis, such warnings may be too 
late. 
Scott Peterson covers the Middle East for the Christian Science Monitor