NATO admits it used depleted uranium in Kosovo

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

NATO admits it used depleted uranium in Kosovo

GENEVA, March 21 (Reuters) - NATO has admitted using depleted uranium 
weapons in Kosovo, exposing civilians, its own troops and aid workers 
to health hazards, a U.N. expert said on Tuesday. 

But Pekka Haavisto, head of the U.N. Balkan environment task force 
investigating the use of munitions during the 70-day war, said NATO 
was still holding back crucial data on where and how it used depleted 
uranium weapons, which can contaminate land and water sources with 
radioactive and toxic particles. 

The former Finnish environment minister said NATO's confirmation of 
its use of depleted uranium came in a letter from the Western 
military alliance's Secretary-General George Robertson to U.N. 
Secretary-General Kofi Annan. 

In its letter, Haavisto said NATO disclosed having used 31,000 rounds 
of depleted uranium ammunition during some 100 missions throughout 
Kosovo by U.S. A-10 aircraft. 

``It was really the Americans who were using depleted uranium in 
NATO,'' Haavisto said. ``The question we now have today is whether it 
was also used in Serbia and Montenegro and other areas.'' 

Haavisto accused the alliance of obstructing his team's work late 
last year by refusing to cooperate to help determine the extent of 
pollution caused by such weapons. 

Accompanying the letter was a NATO map with areas marked where NATO 
said it had used depleted uranium weapons. Shells are tipped with 
depleted uranium to help them penetrate the thick armour of military 
vehicles or underground bunkers. 

The marked areas were concentrated in Kosovo's west and southwest, 
close to the zones where Italian as well as German, Turkish and Dutch 
KFOR troops are based. 

Depleted uranium-tipped weapons were used west of the Pec-Dakovica-
Prizren highway, around the town of Klina, around Prizren and north 
of Suva Reka and Urosevac, Haavisto said. 

``We can see from the map that depleted uranium was widely used in 
Kosovo. These were populated areas so the risks are greater,'' 
Haavisto said. 

``Many missions using depleted uranium also took place outside these 
areas,'' he added. ``If these types of weapons were used, people 
should have been protected and warned against the risks of 
toxication, especially children.'' 

U.N. DEMANDS MORE INFORMATION FROM NATO 

Haavisto said NATO information was not detailed enough for experts to 
do field assessment on health effects and measurements on possible 
contamination of land and ground water. 

``The information provided by NATO and the map is not precise enough 
for a field assessment. We were not given the information we needed 
from NATO. We are in need of precise information on exact locations 
where depleted uranium was used,'' he said. 

NATO officials were not immediately available for comment. 

Haavisto said the use of depleted uranium in Kosovo was only one-
tenth of that in the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq -- after which there 
was an epidemic of cancers among Iraqis living near battlefields. 

U.S. and British veterans of the Gulf War with Iraq have also blamed 
serious health problems among them on the use of such weapons. The 
link is denied by U.S. and British military authorities. 

Haavisto said the World Health Organisation had promised to report on 
the effects on health of medium and long-term exposure to depleted 
uranium in Kosovo in May. 

But the U.N. health agency has yet to produce a similar and equally 
controversial report demanded by Iraq over two years ago on health 
effects of depleted uranium used during the Gulf War.

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Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
Director, Technical				Extension 2306 				     	
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Division		Fax:(714) 668-3149 	                   		    
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