Iraqis and former GIs to sue in US over depleted uranium By Kim Sengupta in
Baghdad 14 November 2000, The Independent, London Iraqi victims of cancer and
former American soldiers suffering from Gulf war syndrome are joining forces
to sue the US government over use of de-pleted uranium (DU) missiles.
Meetings have been held between US-based families of the Iraqis, former
American service personnel and lawyers over legal action in America. Former
British personnel who say they have been affected by DU will be invited to
join the multi-million-dollar claims. A decade after Operation Desert Storm,
lawyers believe there is enough evidence to link the massive rise in cancer
in Iraq and the effect on British and American soldiers to almost 950,000 DU
missiles and shells fired. A conference will be held in Spain this month, to
be attended!
by international medical experts, Gulf war veterans and lawyers,
including Ramsay Clark, a former American attorney general. The impending
legal action is likely to dominate the agenda. Among the veterans to address
the conference, in Gijon, will be two Gulf war syndrome sufferers, Ray
Bristol, a Briton, and the former US sergeant Carol Picou, who gave evidence
to a congressional commission on DU munitions. Their lawyers are expected to
say the American government "recklessly" used DU, a bi-product of nuclear
energy, knowing its devastating effect. DU-hardened missiles have a high
penetration rate. When a projectile hits a target, 70 per cent of the DU
coating burns and oxidises, bursting into toxic radioactive particles. One of
the main arguments expected to be put forward is that American soldiers were
not given protective clothing when sent to inspect damage caused by shells
coated with DU. In Iraq, campaigners say, almost 25!
0,000 civilians have been
affected by DU and there has been a sevenfold leap in cancer, especially
among children, and deformities in birth. Unicef, the UN children's
organisation, says 4,000 children under five die every month. Professor
Ashraf Elbayoumi, a former professor of chemistry at Michigan State
University, said yesterday: "There is ample evidence to link the pattern of
cancer to DU." At the Saddam Children's Hospital in Baghdad there is a
continuous stream of children diagnosed with cancer. And the international
ban on trade is biting. Mohammed Firas, the 29-year-old chief resident
doctor, shrugged hopelessly at the end of a 19-hour shift. "The number of
children we are getting with cancer has gone up 400 per cent," he said. "But
we lack the most basic medication. You see these children bleed and die in
front of you. I just wish there was more we could do ..."
