----- Original Message ----- From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, January 05, 2001 2:49 PM Subject: U.S. Stonewalls, But Europe Fears Uranium Arms Deaths [STOPNATO.ORG.UK] STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Start Your Own FREE Email List at ListBot http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, January 5 8:09 PM SGT US fails to calm European fears over uranium arms PARIS, Jan 5 (AFP) - Washington failed to allay growing European concern over the use of depleted uranium munitions in the Balkans as new cases of rare illnesses in former peacekeepers who served there were revealed on Friday. The Pentagon said no adverse effects had been found in US personnel who handled the ammunition but Greece nevertheless announced that its 3,553 troops who served in Bosnia and Kosovo would undergo medical examinations. Responding to the clamor from Europe's defense ministers over the rash of cancer cases in their troops, NATO Secretary General George Robertson asked the alliance's military officials to report on where depleted uranium (DU) munitions were used in Bosnia. "There is no evidence to support any correlation between exposure to depleted uranium in Bosnia or elsewhere and subsequent radiation-linked ill health," Robertson said in a letter to Italy's ambassador to NATO. "In light of public concern, I have nevertheless asked that this information should be assembled urgently," he said. In a new development, a British soldier who developed arthritis, whose hair fell out and teeth began decaying after serving in the Balkans emerged as the first case of so-called Balkans Syndrome in England. In Italy, where six people who worked in the Balkans were reported to have died of leukemia, a newspaper said two more former peacekeepers had died after developing rare tumours. Greece was also investigating the case of a soldier diagnosed with bone marrow cancer and who had served in Bosnia in 1997 and 1998. Five Belgians, two Dutch, a Portuguese and a Czech are reported to have died from leukemia since returning from the region. Four French soldiers have also contracted the disease. Italy has called for a moratorium on the use of DU munitions, but Washington rejected the proposal. "We don't see any health reason to consider a moratorium now," Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said in Washington Thursday. The United States has admitted firing 31,000 DU projectiles during the air campaign against Belgrade in 1999 and 10,800 on Bosnia in 1994 and 1995. Britain has denied using the munitions. DU is denser than most metals and is used because it can penetrate heavy armour. It gives off relatively low levels of radiation, but it could be dangerous if ingested, inhaled or if it enters the body through cuts or wounds. On Friday, former British army engineer Kevin Rudland called for explanations from the defence ministry on the use of DU munitions. Rudland, 41, developed athritis and stress, his teeth began decaying and his hair fell out after he returned from a six-month tour of duty in Bosnia in 1996. He said he thought he may be the first of many who would come forward or who may not know they have problems yet. In Italy, the newspaper La Repubblica said Captain Giuseppe Benetti and Sargeant Marco Riccardi died from tumours after serving in Bosnia -- the first in 1998 at the age of 34, the second in October 2000 aged 27. The Greek defence ministry said it was "examining a possible relation" between the case of an unidentified soldier who contracted leukemia and the use of DU munitions, but that no evidence has been found yet to suggest there is a link. The Greek military said no case of leukemia had been reported among the 1,700 peacekeepers who served in the Balkans since the Kosovo conflict in June 1999, but testing would be extended to any personnel who had worked in either Bosnia or Kosovo. In Spain, Defense Minister Federico Trillo asserted that a peacekeeper who died from leukemia three months after returning from the Balkans had not been exposed to depleted uranium munitions. None of the country's 32,000 Spanish soldiers who servied in the Balkans had become ill from exposure to DU munitions, Trillo said. NATO's North Atlantic Council, its highest decision-making body, and its political committee are set to meet on Tuesday to discuss calls for an inquiry into the use of the armor-piercing weapons and possible health risks. ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
