----- Original Message ----- From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2001 4:38 PM Subject: EU Orders Nuclear Experts To Investigate Effects Of Uranium Arms [STOPNATO.ORG.UK] STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, January 9 10:38 PM SGT EU orders nuclear experts to look into effects of uranium arms BRUSSELS, Jan 9 (AFP) - Responding to worries about possible cancer-causing weapons used in the Balkans, the European Union on Tuesday ordered experts from its nuclear energy agency to assess whether the munitions pose a risk. Ambassadors of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation also met to discuss the controversy over depleted uranium (DU) ammunition, which was used in the Balkans and has been blamed for causing cancer in some military personnel who served there. But NATO ambassadors were expected to leave decisions to the permanent council which meets Wednesday and could name a body to lead an inquiry into the possible health risks. The EU experts -- doctors and scientists who specialise in radiation and its effects -- are members of the so-called Group 31, which was set up as an independent task force by Euratom, the European nuclear energy agency. The European Union will "draw the necessary conclusions for its personnel and for setting up aid programs in the Balkans" based on the expert findings, said EU spokesman Jean-Christopher Filori. Details of their inquiry have not been finalised but EU officials said they may travel to the site where the weapons were used and will have access to all necessary documents. EU countries are considering an aid program to Bosnia and Yugoslavia if the weapons have caused a potential health risk, Filori added. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder ratcheted up the pressure on NATO and the EU to tackle the issue seriously by saying on Monday that it was not "right" to use the weapons. "We want to know if there is a relationship between cases of diseases (of soldiers) and the use of this ammunition," Schroeder said in Hanover. "All the facts must be laid on the table", Schroeder said. European politicians have been pressing for an account of DU's health risks following the suspicious deaths of several European soldiers who served in Bosnia and Kosovo, but NATO's top brass and doctors said links to cancer have not been found. In Moscow, the Russian defense ministry said a group of experts would be dispatched to Kosovo to examine the zones where Russian peacekeepers are stationed to see if NATO used depleted uranium shells there. Britain's defence ministry was also reported on Tuesday to be ready to announce screening of its soldiers to check for the effects of depleted uranium. Junior defence minister John Spellar was due to make the announcement in parliament, according to a defence ministry spokesman. The NATO meeting was called at the request of Italy, where there have been 18 suspected cases of "Balkans Syndrome" cancers, eight of whom have already died, according to a defense ministry medical commission. As the controversy heated up, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Monday there was no proof of a link between the munitions and the deaths of NATO soldiers. "There is absolutely no proof that there's a connection. We have forces there also, so we would have been concerned," she told reporters at the United Nations headquarters. However retired general Wesley Clark, who was NATO's supreme allied commander during the Kosovo conflict, warned that soldiers should take precautions when handling the material. "It is clear that it's up to the military chiefs to warn (soldiers) of all possible dangers, to recommend that nothing be touched," Clark said in an interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera. The New York Times said on Tuesday that Washington had warned its NATO allies to take special precautions on entering Kosovo because of depleted uranium in US ammunition. The newspaper said recommendations were made in a document called "hazard awareness" that it received from a military official from a NATO country. UN observers have discovered the presence of radioactivity at eight sites in Kosovo where DU warheads exploded. According to experts, the danger from the munitions, designed to penetrate the armour of heavy tanks, comes not from the low-level radiation they emit but from the poisonous dust created on impact. ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
