Subject: Kosovo DU Testing Soldiers
Date: Mon,
1 Jan 2001 11:18:36 +1100
From: moonbeam@earthling.net
To:
nukenet@envirolink.org
BALKANS
SYNDROME
ACQUITTAL WITHOUT INVESTIGATION |
Thousands Of Kosovo
Peacekeepers To Be Tested For D.U. Poisoning
By Christina Lamb - Diplomatic Correspondent and Macer Hall
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
12-31-00
Thousands of European soldiers who served in
Nato forces in Kosovo are to be tested for radiation
after claims that they developed cancer through
exposure to allied munitions.
Portugal and Spain will join the Italians, French and
Belgians this week in carrying out a systematic
review of the health of the troops they sent to the
region to discover whether they were exposed to
dangerous levels of depleted uranium in ammunition
used by American forces.
Portugal will also send a mission of military
personnel and scientists from the National Atomic
Institute to Kosovo to test radiation levels in areas
where depleted uranium shells fell.
The decision follows an outcry in Portugal over the
death from leukaemia of Hugo Paulino, a young
Portuguese corporal, three weeks after returning
from peacekeeping in Kosovo. The defence ministry
refused to release his body to his family for an
autopsy and radiation testing, citing "herpes of the
brain" as the cause of death. "It was depleted
uranium that killed him," insisted his father, Luis, in
an interview on Portuguese television.
Two Italian soldiers have died of leukaemia since
returning from Kosovo and a leaked military
document published in La Repubblica last week
admitted that Italian soldiers were dying from
leukaemia caused by depleted uranium. Another
Italian, Rinaldo Colombo, 31, who served as a
peacekeeper in Bosnia in 1995, has also died of the
disease.
Nato said last week that American aircraft fired
10,800 depleted uranium shells in Bosnia in
1994-95. Research has shown that exposure to
depleted uranium causes health problems that may
lead to cancer and neurological and immune system
defects in addition to damage to the reproductive
organs.
Politicians in Portugal and Italy have accused Nato
of a cover-up and demanded that their governments
should think more carefully before participating in
future Nato operations. The Portuguese
announcement leaves Britain increasingly isolated
as one of the few members of the Nato forces not to
be carrying out any investigation. The Dutch
government is also planning an inquiry.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said
yesterday that it was monitoring the investigations
by its Nato allies but had no plans to test its own
soldiers. She said: "We do take the welfare of our
personnel very seriously and we'll keep an eye on
the outcome of any further investigations into
depleted uranium."
She insisted, however, that there was no cause for
concern. "Our medical advice has told us that
depleted uranium is no more radioactive than, for
example, a household smoke detector. It does have
a recognised toxicity but only if ingested into the
digestive system, not if it merely comes into contact
with the skin."
She said that the MoD had carried out a substantial
amount of scientific research into the issue following
the Gulf war, when weapons tipped or packed with
depleted uranium were used extensively for the first
time.
About 5,000 British ex-servicemen who served in
the Gulf war have reported symptoms of the various
conditions referred to as Gulf war syndrome and
about 3,500 are claiming war pensions, according to
figures from the Gulf Veterans Association. More
than 500 have died of related illnesses.
Campaigners say exposure to depleted uranium is
partly to blame. Tests last year by Canadian
scientists found that some Gulf veterans had
uranium in their blood.
The Pentagon originally denied that uranium shells
were used in Kosovo but in March Lord Robertson,
the Secretary General of Nato, said that 31,000
shells containing depleted uranium had been used
by American A10 ground attack aircraft in Kosovo.
Known as Warthogs, the A10s use uranium bullets
for knocking out tanks. The fine, poisonous dust
remains in the atmosphere and pollutes water
supplies.
America was the only allied force to use depleted
uranium in its missiles. The United States Defence
Department maintains that they carry no greater
health risk than conventional weapons.
Roger Coghill, an experimental biologist who runs a
research centre in Wales, accused the Americans
and the MoD of brushing the "biological truth" under
the carpet. "One single particle of depleted uranium
lodged in the lymph node can devastate the entire
immune system," he told a conference in London,
adding a warning that there may be thousands more
deaths in Kosovo.
The United Nations has a team in Kosovo carrying
out its own investigation that will report in February.
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