www.tenc.net [Emperor's
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LOW INTENSITY NUCLEAR WAR, Part 2
by Michel
Chossudovsky
DOUBLE STANDARDS
If radioactivity were confined
to so-called "very limited spots", why then
have KFOR troops been
instructed by their governments "not to eat local
produce… have drinking
water flown in …and that clothes must be destroyed on
departure and
vehicles decontaminated."23 According to Paul Sullivan,
executive director
of the National Gulf War Resource Center, depleted uranium
in Yugoslavia
could affect "agricultural areas, places where livestock graze
and where
crops are grown, thereby introducing the specter of possible
contamination
of the food chain." (In November 2000, Gulf War veterans
affected by DU
launched a class action law-suit against the US government).
CONTAMINATION OVER A LARGE GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
According to NATO
sources (communicated to UNEP), some 112 sites in
Yugoslavia (of which 72
are in Kosovo) were targeted during the war with
depleted uranium antitank
shells. Between 30,000 and 50,000 DU shells were
fired.
Scientific
evidence amply confirms that the DU radioactive aerosol spreads
from "the
point of release" over a large geographical area suggesting that
large
parts of the province of Kosovo are contaminated. "[R]adioactive
derivatives can linger in the air for months… Just one particle in the
lungs
is enough… a single particle could travel to the lymph nodes, where
the
radioactivity would lower the body's defenses against lymphomas and
leukemia.'' 24
According to world renowned radiologist Dr. Rosalie
Bertell:
"When used in war, the depleted uranium (DU) bursts into
flame [and]
releasing a deadly radioactive aerosol of uranium, unlike
anything seen
before. It can kill everyone in a tank. This ceramic aerosol
is much lighter
than uranium dust. It can travel in air tens of kilometres
from the point of
release, or be stirred up in dust and re-suspended in
air with wind or human
movement. It is very small and can be breathed in
by anyone: a baby, pregnant
woman, the elderly, the sick. This radioactive
ceramic can stay deep in the
lungs for years, irradiating the tissue with
powerful alpha particles within
about a 30 micron sphere, causing
emphysema and/or fibrosis. The ceramic can
also be swallowed and do damage
to the gastrointestinal tract. In time, it
penetrates the lung tissue and
enters into the blood stream. ...It can also
initiate cancer or promote
cancers which have been initiated by other
carcinogens". 25
Although concentrated on Kosovo's South-western border, the DU
contamination
sites are scattered throughout the province. (See NATO map
at
http://balkans.unep.ch/du/targetmap.html
) Most of Kosovo's villages and
cities including Pristina, Prizren and Pec
lie within less than 20 km. of the
72 DU target sites confirming that the
entire province is contaminated.
NATO WAR CRIMES
The bombing of
Yugoslavia is best described as a "low intensity nuclear war"
using toxic
radioactive shells and missiles. Amply documented, the
radioactive
fall-out potentially puts millions of people at risk throughout
the
Balkans.
In March 1999, NATO launched the air raids invoking broad
humanitarian
principles and ideals. NATO had "come to the rescue" of
ethnic Albanian
Kosovars on the grounds they were being massacred by Serb
forces. Subsequent
forensic reports by the FBI and Europol confirm that
the massacres did not
occur. In a cruel irony, Albanian Kosovar civilians
are among the main
victims of DU radiation.
To maintain the
cover-up, NATO is now prepared to reveal a small fraction of
the truth.
The military Alliance -- in liaison with NATO member governments
-- wants
at all cost to focus attention on the danger to "peacekeepers" and
keep
local civilians out of the picture, because if the entire truth gets
out,
people might start asking questions such as "how is it that the Kosovar
Albanians, the people we were supposed to rescue are now the victims?" In
both Bosnia and Kosovo, the UN has been careful not to record cancer cases
among civilians. The narrow focus on "peacekeepers" is part of the
cover-up.
It distracts public opinion from the broader issue of civilian
victims.
The primary victims of DU weapons are children, making their
use a "war crime
against children."
"In 1996 this issue was
brought before the Human Rights Tribunal in Geneva
and the Tribunal
condemned it as warfare. They actually called Depleted
Uranium a weapon of
mass destruction. I think it might be better called a
weapon of
indiscriminate destruction but they didn't really have a term for
it. I
say indiscriminate because it will by choice affect women and children.
Women have tissues that are more radioactively sensitive like the
breast and
uterine tissue. Children are closer to the ground; they're
growing; they'll
incorporate more uranium into their bones when they grow
and they also have a
longer life span so that the cancers that have a
longer latency can be
expressed. So it selects out women and children."
(Dr. Rosalie Bertell,
Speech at University of Toronto Antiwar Conference,
8 May 1999
http://www.peace.ca/depleteduranium.htm
.
The use of depleted uranium munitions is only one among several NATO
crimes
against humanity committed in Iraq and the
Balkans.
According to official records, some 1800 Balkans peacekeepers
(Bosnia,
Croatia and Kosovo) suffer from health ailments related to DU
radiation.26.
Assuming the same level of risk (as a percentage of
population), the numbers
of civilians throughout former Yugoslavia
affected by DU radiation would be
in the tens of thousands. British
scientist Roger Coghill suggests, in this
regard, that "throughout the
Balkan region, there will be an extra 10,150
deaths from cancer because of
the use of DU. That will include local people,
K-FOR personnel, aid
workers, everyone."27 Moreover, according to a report
published in Athens
during the War, the impacts of depleted uranium are
likely to extend
beyond the Balkans. Albania, and Macedonia but also Greece,
Italy, Austria
and Hungary face a potential threat to human health as a
result of the use
of radioactive depleted uranium shells during the 1999 War.
While no
overall data on civilian deaths have been recorded, partial evidence
confirms that a large numbers of civilians have already died as result of
DU
radiation since the war in Bosnia:
"DU radiation and an
apparent use of defoliants by US/NATO troops against
Serbian land and
population [in Bosnia], have caused many birth defects among
babies born
after the US/NATO bombing and occupation; the magnitude of this
problem
has stunned Serbian medical experts and panicked the population." 28
A
recent account points to several hundred deaths of civilians solely in one
Bosnian village:
"The village is empty, the cemetery full. Soon
there will be no more room
for the dead. Among refugee families who
moved to Bratunac from Hadzici [in
the outskirts of Sarajevo] there is a
hardly a household not cloaked in
mourning…On them are fresh wreaths, some
with flowers that have not yet
wilted. On the crosses the years of death
1998, 1999, 2000 and the grave of a
20 year-old woman at the end of the
rows. She died a few days ago…
No one could even imagine that in only
one or two years the part of the
cemetery set aside for civilians would
be doubly full… It happens often that
one of the natives of Hadzici will
suddenly die. Or they will go to see the
doctor in Belgrade and when they
come back their relatives will tell us that
they are dying of cancer…
[C]hief doctor Slavica Jovanovic…conducted an
investigation and proved
that in 1998 the mortality rate far exceeded the
birth rate. She showed
that it wasn't just a question of fate but something
far more serious…
'Zoran Stankovic, the renowned pathologist from the
Military Medical
Academy (VMA) determined that over 200 of his patients from
this area died
of cancer, most probably due to the effects of depleted
uranium in dropped
NATO bombs five years ago. But someone quickly silenced
the public and
everything was hushed up. 'You see, our cemetery is full of
fresh graves
while the people from Vinca [Nuclear Institute] claim that
uranium isn't
dangerous. What other kind of evidence do you need if people
are dying?…'
The refugees from Hadzici arrived in Bratunac in a sizeable
number. There
were almost 5,000 of them. There were 1,000 just in the
collective
centers. Now, says Zelenovic, 'there are about 600 of them left.
And they
certainly had nowhere else to go' … Someone dies of cancer every
third
day; there is no more room in the cemeteries" 29
* * *
To see
the NATO "Map Of Sites As Being Targeted By Ordnance Containing
Depleted
Uranium during the 1999 Kosovo Conflict" go to
http://balkans.unep.ch/du/targetmap.html
Following is a link to photographs of Iraqi children affected by DU
radiation. * Please be forewarned that these photographs are horrifying
beyond belief. That is why we have not actually posted them on Emperor's
Clothes. *
http://www.web-light.nl/VISIE/extremedeformities.html
.
If you are unable to access the above Website, go first to
http://www.web-light.nl/ and follow the
link to "Depleted Uranium" and then
to "Extreme Deformities in Iraqi
Children". Some of the photographs are by
renowned scientist and expert on
DU radiation Dr. Siegfried Horst Guenther.
* * *
ENDNOTES
1 The Independent, London, 4 January 2001.
2
See Felicity Arbuthnot, "It Turns out that Depleted Uranium is Bad for
NATO" Troops, Emperors Clothes,
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/arbuth/port.htm.
11 October 2000. See also interview with F. Arbuthnot.
3 In
all, some 17 countries including Russia, Israel, Saudi Arabia and South
Korea are known to have DU weapons in their arsenal. See Vladimir Zajic,
Review of Radioactivity, Military Use, and Health Effects of Depleted
Uranium, 1999 at
http://vzajic.tripod.com/. See John
Catalinotto and Sara
Flounders, Is the Israeli Military using Depleted
Uranium Weapons against the
Palestinians? International Action Center,
http://www.iacenter.org/, New
York,
2000
4 Agence France Presse, 4 January 20001.
5 United Press
International, 5 January 2001.
6 See Felicity Arbuthnot, op cit.
7 Piot Bein, "More on Depleted Uranium", Emperors Clothes at
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/arbuth/port.htm
.11 October 2000.
8 According to Dr. Siegfried Horst Guenther, "Uran
Geschosse:
Schwergesch�digte Soldaten, missgebildete Neugeborene,
sterbende Kinder,
Ahriman Verlag,
http://www.ahriman.com/guenther.htm
, Freiburg, 2000. See
also International Action Center, "Metal of
Dishonor, How the Pentagon
Radiates Soldiers and Civilians with DU
Weapons", Second Edition,
International Action Center,
http://www.iacenter.org/, New York,
2000.
9 Beta News Agency, Belgrade, 13.50 GMT, 10 Jan 2001, in BBC
Summary of World
Broadcasts, 12 January 2001.
10 Ibid.
11
See Rick McDowell, "Economic Sanctions on Iraq", Z Magazine, November
1997.
12. Carlo Pona, "The Criminal Use of Depleted Uranium",
International
Tribunal for U.S./NATO War Crimes in Yugoslavia,
International Action Center,
http://www.iacenter.org/, New York, June
10, 2000. See also "Metal of
Dishonor", op. cit.
13 See UNEP/UNCHS
Balkans Task Force Final Report "The Kosovo Conflict
-Consequences for the
Environment & Human Settlements" at
http://balkans.unep.ch/fry/fry.html
; see the "desk study" on "The Potential
Effects on Human Health and the
Environment of the Possible Use of Depleted
Uranium (DU)" at
http://balkans.unep.ch/du/du.html
; see also "UN considers
New Data on Depleted Uranium in Kosovo", UNEP,
Geneva, 20 September 2000.
14 See Michel Chossudovsky, NATO Willfully
Triggered an Environmental
Disaster, at
www.emperors-clothes.com.
15 See the 1999 UNEP "desk study", op. cit.
16 According to a
toxicologist at the International Agency for Research on
Cancer which is a
division of the WHO, Associated Press, January 5 2001.
17 According to
WHO specialist, quoted in the Boston Globe, January 10, 2001.
18 Boston
Globe, June 27 2000, statement of Mark Parkin, an expert with the
International Agency for Research on Cancer.
19 See UNEP Press
Release at
http://balkans.unep.ch/du/missions.html
.
20 See AC Laboratorium Spiez (ACLS) Website at
http://www.vbs.admin.ch/internet/gr/acls/e/index.htm
).
21 Ibid
22 See UNEP Press Release at
http://balkans.unep.ch/du/missions.html
see also
UNEP, "Advisory Note on Current work on DU by UNEP" at.
http://balkans.unep.ch/press/press010111.html
.
23. Arbuthnot, op cit.
24 According to British radiologist
Roger William Coghill, quoted in
Associated Press, 5 January
2000.
25 Rosalie Bertell, Email Communication, May 1999.
26
RTBF, Belgian French Language Television, 9 January 2001
27 Calgary
Herald, 4 January 2001.
28 Tika Jankovich, "Chemical/Nuclear Warfare in
Bosnia: Eyewitness To Hell"
Comments by Jared Israel, Emperors Clothes
at
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/tika/hell.html
., 9 January 2001.
29 Dubravka Vujanovic "Someone Dies of Cancer every
Third Day; There is no
More Room in the Cemeteries" , Nedelni Telegraf,
Belgrade, 10 January 2001.
On the same subject see Robert Fisk, "I see 300
Graves that could bear the
Headstone: 'Died of Depleted Uranium', The
Independent, London, 13 January
2001
C Copyright by Michel
Chossudovsky, Ottawa, January 2001. All rights
reserved. Permission is
granted to post this text on non-commercial community
internet sites,
provided the essay remains intact and the copyright note is
displayed. To
publish this text on commercial internet sites, in printed
and/or other
forms (including excerpts) contact the author at
[EMAIL PROTECTED], fax:
1-514-4256224, voice box: 1-613-5625800, ext.
1415.
Further
reading on NATO's use of weapons of terror:
In 'NATO Willfully
Triggered Environmental Catastrophe In Pancevo,
Yugoslavia' at
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/chuss/willful.htm
Prof.
Michel Chossudovsky proves that NATO deliberately caused a
catastrophic
environmental disaster when it bombed chemical and petroleum
facilities in
Pancevo, Yugoslavia, during the 1999 air war.
For other
articles by Prof. Chossudovsky, please go the
http://emperors-clothes.com/artbyauth.html#CThe
distinguished journalist Felicity Arbuthnot has written tirelessly about
the effects of Depleted Uranium on human beings in Iraq and Yugoslavia.
The
following articles are posted on Emperor's Clothes:
* ''It Turns
Out Depleted Uranium Is Bad For NATO Troops In Kosovo [What
About Everyone
Else?]'' at
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/arbuth/port.htm
* ''Allies 'told in 1991 of uranium cancer risks''' at
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/told.htm
* 'Allies Deliberately Poisoned Iraq Public Water Supply in Gulf War'
at
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/allies.htm
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