----- Original Message ----- From: Miroslav Antic <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: BALKAN <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; SIEM NEWS <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: NATO <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2001 11:59 PM Subject: Germany Voices Concern to U.S. Over Plutonium [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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday January 17 11:05 AM ET Germany Voices Concern to U.S. Over Plutonium Reuters Photo BERLIN (Reuters) - German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping said Wednesday he had expressed concern to the United States after a German television report that American munitions contained deadly traces of plutonium. ARD public television's current affairs show, Monitor, said it had obtained Defense Department documents noting the possibility of plutonium traces in depleted uranium weapons such as those used by NATO (news - web sites) in the Balkans. Scharping said he had called in a U.S. embassy official in Berlin to ``express the concerns that are triggered by the word plutonium.'' Speaking to reporters before facing a parliamentary hearing on the so-called ``Balkans Syndrome,'' Scharping said he had been promised access to all relevant U.S. information over continuing health risks from weapons containing depleted uranium. Nobody at the U.S. embassy was immediately available to comment on the meeting. The dispute over depleted uranium erupted earlier this month as some countries suggested a connection with leukemia and other diseases affecting some young NATO soldiers who had served as peacekeepers in Kosovo and Bosnia. The European Parliament Wednesday approved calls to suspend the use of depleted uranium in munitions because of fears of health risks. However, NATO said Tuesday its chief medical officers had seen nothing that pointed to a serious health risk from depleted uranium munitions used in the Gulf War and the Balkans. In extracts from a program to be broadcast Thursday, Monitor said the U.S. Pentagon (news - web sites) had carried out a study from which it concluded that the depleted uranium supplied for its munitions could contain plutonium. Monitor quoted nuclear experts as saying this would substantially increase the radiation risk from spent weapons. Scharping was expected face accusations from parliamentarians that he has not taken the health risk to German peacekeepers seriously enough following two weeks of controversy over cancer risks from depleted uranium arms. Email this story - View most popular | Printer-friendly format Miroslav Antic, http://www.antic.org/SNN/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
