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AND STATEMENT
OF CONFERENCE
CONCLUSIONS
Contact Information: Marion Kuepker and David Kraft phone:
+49-40-430-7332 email <neis@neis.org>
FOR COMPLETE CONFERENCE COVERAGE:
http://www.uraniumweaponsconference.de/
www.traprockpeace.org
WORLD URANIUM WEAPONS
CONFERENCE
The Trojan Horse of Nuclear War
October 21, 2003
Hamburg, Germany
The World DU/Uranium Weapons Conference was held October 16-19,
2003,
in Hamburg, Germany. More than 200 participants represented
20 nations from
five continents, which included Iraq, Afghanistan, Australia, Japan,
US, Canada,
UK, Sweden, Ireland, France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium,
Netherlands,
Austria, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Algeria, and Cuba. Over 35
speakers including
scientists, medical professionals, Iraqi medical and environmental
professionals,
independent researchers, international legal experts, military
professionals,
a nuclear
weapons lab whistleblower, a prosecutor for the International War
Crimes Tribunal for
Afghanistan, veterans and their families, civilians, NGO, and peace
and anti-globalization
activists presented their most recent findings and issues about
the effects of these illegal
weapons.
Iraqi scientist, Dr. Souad Al-Azzawi, received the internationally
recognized
"Nuclear Free Future Award" and prize of 10,000 Euros on October
12, just prior to the
Conference. She presented her findings on environmental
studies
of depleted uranium (DU)
contamination of air, soil and water in southern Iraq from the 1991
Gulf War.
Two days of presentations during the Plenary Session were
followed
by two days of
workshops which focused on key issues: science, international
law/organizers,
and affected
veterans and civilians. The workshops were planned to identify
consensus on the issues,
and to discuss strategies to develop further united international
action plans. The Plenary
Session was in English with professional simultaneous interpretation
into German and Japanese.
Six independent filmmakers covered the conference and six photo
exhibitions
from four
continents were presented. The exhibit included the latest
photographs from Iraq
presented by the renowned international Japanese photographer
Takashi
Morizumi.
Videos and films on related topics were open to the public during
the workshop sessions.
The Conference was streamed live to the internet but unexplained
server problems at
IndyMedia made access to the live-feed unavailable during the
conference.
The Conference
will be streamed over the internet again when the server problems
are resolved, and the
schedule will be posted on the Conference website:
http://www.uraniumweaponsconference.de
A press conference held on Friday, October 17, was greatly
under-attended
by the
mainstream media, which still seems to fail to grasp the
significance
of the issue.
Stories on the Conference appeared in only a few media, mostly
alternative
or progressive.
Conference coordinator Marion Kuepker stated "We believe this is
part of the continuing
cover-up on the issue of devastating health problems resulting from
"depleted" uranium
(DU) weaponry used by the U.S., U.K. and NATO forces in Iraq,
Bosnia,
Montenegro,
Serbia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan. Today nearly 7,000 German
soldiers are serving in
contaminated regions in Kosovo and Afghanistan."
Conference
participants
overwhelmingly agreed:
· the use of DU/Uranium
weapons is, and has always been, illegal under existing laws
(both international and
U.S. military) and conventions
· future campaigns and
treaties should replace "ban" with the term "abolition" of DU/Uranium
weapons
· to support the
independent
International War Crimes Tribunal for Iraq in 2004
· environmental DU
contamination
and epidemiological evidence in southern Iraq presented
by the Iraqi
professionals
established a direct link between DU and observed increases in
radiation
related diseases
· the Conference rejects
the ICRP model for internal exposure to small radioactive particles,
like DU, and recommends
that the European Committee on Radiation Risk (ECRR) extend the 2003
model on low-level
radiation
to the analysis of the health risk from DU
· there is an urgent
need to establish an independent research and teaching institution, a
"Free
University,"
to provide credible
research
results independent of the manipulations and funding pressures exerted
by
governments and
institutions
backing the nuclear lobby
· UNEP and WHO should
be pressured to become independent from the IAEA, recognized as part
of the nuclear lobby,
in order to conduct comprehensive screening in contaminated areas
including
battlefields, testing
grounds, manufacturing sites and military installations worldwide
· medical care should
be provided immediately for effected military and civilians
Complete Conference resolutions and findings will be available soon
at: http://www.uraniumweaponsconference.de
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Foto's, video & audio from the conference soon on this site |
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