IRAQ SANCTIONS MONITOR Number 184 Tuesday, January 9, 2001 The daily Monitor is produced by the Mariam Appeal. Tel: 00 44 (0) 207 403 5200. Website: www.mariamappeal.com. _______________________________________________ BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO came under pressure on Tuesday to set aside political differences and face up to growing European concerns of a possible link between uranium tipped bombs and cases of cancer among Western peacekeepers. Controversy has erupted over the alliance"s use in the Balkans of armor-piercing shells tipped with depleted uranium although health experts have cast doubt on links to blood cancer among soldiers. Depleted uranium (DU) is used in missiles, shells and bullets to increase heavy armor penetration. Defense experts say it can be pulverized on impact into a radioactive dust. Political advisers at both NATO and the European Union met separately to discuss the issue. NATO appears split between those, like Britain and the United States, who argue there is no health risk from DU weaponry and others -- including Germany, Italy, Portugal and Belgium -- who want a full NATO inquiry. U.S. attack jets fired 31,000 rounds of DU ammunition against Serb targets during NATO"s 1999 campaign to drive the Yugoslav army out of Kosovo. Some 10,000 rounds were also fired in neighboring Bosnia in 1994-95. The controversy echoes the long-running row which followed the West"s use of DU munitions in the Gulf War that resulted in thousands of Iraqi civilian deaths, the birth of deformed babies and claims of "Gulf War Syndrome" among soldiers. GROWING LIST OF VETERAN CASUALTIES Italy, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands have reported deaths from cancer among soldiers who served in the Balkans. Many others have fallen ill, prompting widespread calls for increased medical screening and alliance-wide research. But NATO has insisted there is no known link between the depleted uranium arms and illness among troops. "There"s absolutely no proof that there"s a connection," Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Monday. World Health Organization experts in Geneva doubted that DU weapons had caused leukemia, a potentially fatal blood cancer, among troops sent to the Balkans. WHO experts said studies in Kosovo hospitals had so far shown no rise in average levels of leukemia among the largely Albanian civilian population of the Serbian province. But they warned that children playing in former conflict areas where the weapons had exploded could be at risk and recommended that soldiers who had taken home depleted uranium shell parts as souvenirs should dispose of them. The Royal Society of leading British scientists has said it plans to study the safety and health effects of depleted uranium in weapons used by NATO in the Balkans. NO RUSSIAN CASES, BUT SCREENING STEPPED UP Russian defense officials were quoted Tuesday as saying Moscow had so far found no peacekeepers ill with leukemia due to DU from NATO weapons used in Kosovo. Russia has around 4,000 troops in Kosovo and Bosnia. But Moscow insisted an international inquiry was the only way to check claims of so-called "Balkans Syndrome." The RIA news agency quoted Lieutenant-General Nikolai Staskov, first deputy head of Russia"s paratroop forces, as saying some 10,000 servicemen who had served in the former Yugoslavia would be examined in Russia. In London, a Defense Ministry spokesman denied media reports that Britain planned to screen war veterans. An official said later that the government would make a statement on depleted uranium at 1530 GMT. Defense experts said it was time to clear the air and urged NATO to agree on research into any possible health risks. "I think NATO should lead from the front," said British military analyst Paul Beaver, spokesman for Jane"s Weekly. "There is no doubt in my mind -- there has to be an alliance-wide epidemiological survey," he told Reuters. "This is not just military and medical, this is political. Bruce George, chairman of the British parliament"s influential defense select committee, told BBC Radio: "It is vitally important that all the major countries who are going to examine their forces do so with a common methodology. "It would be ludicrous if one group of people -- the Portuguese -- embarked on one approach and the Americans and British had different approaches." Former army engineer Kevin Rudland, the first British ex-serviceman to say contact with DU dust in the Balkans had caused him to suffer a related illness, said it was scandalous that the authorities were dragging their feet. "There are so many people in the same boat as me. I think they should sort this out once and for all," he said. _________________________________________________ Qatari gift of Boeing 747 makes successful maiden flight in Iraq BAGHDAD, Jan 9 (AFP) - A US-made Boeing 747 aircraft donated by a member of Qatar's ruling family in a show of solidarity with Iraq has made its debut for Iraqi Airways with a successful internal flight, the carrier said Tuesday. Transport Minister Ahmad Murtada and journalists were aboard the jumbo's first flight between Baghdad and the southern city of Basra on Monday, said the national airline of the sanctions-hit country. The United States imposed sanctions in November against Sheikh Hamad bin Ali bin Jaber al-Thani, the Qatari royal who presented Iraqi President Saddam Hussein with the 747, to prevent "further diversion of US-origin goods to Iraq". It said Secretary of State Madeleine Albright would take steps to bar those responsible for the transfer of the plane to Iraq from visiting the United States. Iraq, which resumed domestic flights for the first time since the 1991 Gulf War last November, now has four planes in service between Baghdad, Basra and the northern city of Mosul, the others being of Russian make. _______________________________________________ Syria/Iraq: Officials discuss radio-TV cooperation Text of report by Iraqi radio on 8 January Syrian Information Minister Adnan Imran received Dr Muhammad Muzaffar al-Adhami, director-general of the Radio and Television Department and head of the Iraqi delegation to the meetings of the Executive Council and the General Assembly of the Arab Broadcasting Union, held in Damascus. The two officials discussed ways to develop cooperation in the field of radio and television between the two fraternal countries. The meeting was attended by Dr Fa'iz al-Sa'igh, director-general of the Syrian Radio and Television Corporation. _______________________________________________ No-fly zone hinges on arms inspection renewal >From The Daily Telegraph January 9th, 2001 BRITAIN will consider withdrawing aircraft enforcing the southern no-fly zone over Iraq if Baghdad re-admits weapons inspectors, the Foreign Office said yesterday as it reassessed Gulf policy. With a new administration about to take office in Washington, the Government wants to look again at the 10-year-old sanctions policy that has failed to unseat Saddam Hussein while leaving Britain and America increasingly isolated. Iraq has refused to bow to the year-old UN Security Council resolution 1284, which offers to remove economic sanctions in months if it complies with arms inspections suspended in 1998. A British official said: "Resolution 1284 was supposed to be a compromise with Iraq but they did not accept it. They are not even co-operating on uncontentious humanitarian questions, such as the 500 Kuwaitis missing since the invasion." The Foreign Office said: "We are not about to pull out of the southern no-fly zone." Change depended on Iraq. Yet this is the clearest suggestion so far that the no-fly zones could be coming to an end. They were imposed over northern and southern Iraq after the 1991 Gulf war to protect Kurdish and Shi'ite civilians from indiscriminate attack by Saddam's air force. Unlike the economic embargo, the no-fly zones were not explicitly authorised by the UN Security Council, although America and Britain say the patrols are in support of the UN. Russia, China and France have made clear their opposition to the sanctions policy while Hans von Sponeck, former UN humanitarian envoy in Baghdad, repeated accusations last week that British policy was harming Iraqi civilians and tha the no-fly zones were illegal. British officials said the southern no-fly zone, covering an area that Iraq controls fully, would be easier to remove than the northern zone, which protects an autonomous Kurdish enclave that America is committed to preserving. _______________________________________________ Britain set to announce uranium tests on soldiers: reports LONDON, Jan 9 (AFP) - Britain's defence ministry was reported on Tuesday -- despite official denials -- to announce screening of its soldiers to check for the effects of depleted uranium. The ministry repeated its line that there were no plans to screen service personnel but BBC radio claimed it had been told by a senior defence source the government was preparing to announce medical tests. Defence minister Geoff Hoon will announce a climbdown on Thursday when he addresses the House of Commons, according to the BBC. The British government has been under intense pressure to carry out testing on soldiers who served in the Balkans and the Gulf War after European countries including Italy, Portugal and Belgium said they would screen their own troops. Munitions are tipped with depleted uranium so they can penetrate armour but scientists fear that servicemen exposed to radioactive dust from the spent shells could suffer from cancer. The United States has admitted firing at least 31,000 depleted uranium shells in Bosnia and Kosovo since 1994. A defence ministry spokesman rejected the BBC report. "There has been no change in our position. We have no plans to screen service personnel," he told AFP on Tuesday. He added that Hoon will address the issue of depleted uranium when he speaks in parliament on Thursday but the spokesman refused to comment on what would be in the speech. "I am not told in advance what he is going to say," he said. Earlier on Tuesday, the Guardian reported that the government was planning to announce screening, but this too was met with official denials. Britain's Royal Society, a respected scientific authority, has launched an independent inquiry into the effects of the uranium on servicemen's health. _______________________________________________ Galloway seeks answers on phone tapping >From THE SCOTSMAN, January 8th, 2001 REBEL MP George Galloway will today challenge the Prime Minister over claims that MPs' private telephone calls are being tapped by the security services. The outspoken Labour MP for Glasgow Kelvin claims he has evidence that his home and office have been bugged. Mr Galloway also alleges that suspicions his calls and messages are under surveillance were confirmed by a senior cabinet minister. Mr Galloway said: "More than 30 years ago Harold Wilson told Parliament that the telephone calls of members of the House would not be tapped by the security services. I will be tabling a written parliamentray question to Tony Blair for priority answer, demanding an assurance that the statement still stands." Mr Galloway added: "Over the last three years, in which my friends and I have inflicted damage on the US-UK policy towards Iraq, I've sensed that the irritation of the Foreign Office at my views and activities has hardened. I have come to believe someone is monitoring international communications connected to the work I have been doing. _______________________________________________ US, Britain question diverting Iraqi funds for Palestinians NATIONS (AP) January 8 _ The U.N. sanctions committee on Iraq was deadlocked on an Iraqi request to give the Palestinians 1 billion euros from its oil sale proceeds after the United States and Britain said the money would be better spent on suffering Iraqis. The chairman of the committee, Norwegian Ambassador Ole Peter Kolby, said the Iraqi request would be taken up at a future meeting and that he would meet with the Palestinian envoy to check his views on the proposal. Last month, Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf asked the Security Council to allocate 1 billion euros this year from its U.N.-supervised oil sales to support the Palestinian uprising. In particular, the Iraqis said they wanted to compensate the families of Palestinian victims and also provide them with food and medicine in a show of solidarity. More than 360 people, most of them Palestinians, have been killed in near-daily clashes with Israeli troops. While several diplomats said the Palestinians could use additional aid, they said the U.N. oil-for-food program wasn't the right way to get it to them. The program, allowing Iraq to sell its oil to buy food and medicine for its people, was created in 1996 to care for Iraqis living under crippling U.N. trade sanctions. During Monday's meeting, the United States questioned why the Iraqis would want to divert money from the program when it complains that the United Nations is still failing to meet its humanitarian needs, a U.S. official said. And a British official said the U.N. resolutions were clear that the proceeds from Iraqi oil sales were designed to provide aid for Iraqis _ not Palestinians or anyone else. Russia, China and Tunisia supported the Iraqi request, diplomats said. France, which often backs Iraq in the sanctions committee, said it was not opposed to the Iraqi request but said 1 billion euros was too much. Discussion of the Iraqi request came as the United Nations is gearing up for talks with Iraqi officials on ending the stalemate over weapons inspections, which ended two years ago, and 10-year-old sanctions. Secretary-General Kofi Annan confirmed Monday that the ``dialogue'' he had hoped to launch this week with the Iraqis would have to be put off until February. He had asked the Iraqis to provide ideas for a framework of the discussion, but they didn't follow through in time, U.N. officials said. Annan leaves at the end of the week for a trip to Asia and Europe that will take him through the end of the month. ``What I have offered is a date, or a suggestion of the timeframe within which we could meet. And I'm expecting them to react,'' Annan said. Iraq has demanded that sanctions imposed after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait be lifted immediately on the grounds that it has rid itself of its weapons of mass destruction. Under U.N. resolutions, the sanctions cannot be lifted until the Security Council is satisfied that Baghdad is weapons-free. At Monday's sanctions committee meeting, ambassadors decided to take a comprehensive look next week at smuggling of Iraqi oil after Britain said it wanted to discuss reports that Syria and Iraq have reopened an oil pipeline. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
