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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Times:Germany ignored uranium warning </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">BY ROGER BOYES, RICHARD OWEN AND MICHAEL EVANS ,TUESDAY JANUARY 09 2001<br> <br>THE Berlin Government ignored warnings of potential health risks associated with American depleted uranium shells during the Balkans offensive. <br>Rudolf Scharping, the Defence Minister, was urged in a letter from Admiral Elmar Schmдhling to prevent German troops coming into contact with the shells or vehicles hit by them. The letter was sent on June 14, 1999, after the 78-day Nato air campaign in Kosovo and Serbia. No protective measures were taken as a result. <br><br>Internal German Defence Ministry correspondence shows that the issue did not disappear. Peter Wichert, a junior Defence Minister, passed on Nato guidance that there was &#8220;a possible toxic danger&#8221; in the war zone. But the same memo concluded: &#8220;Nato currently has no plans for decontamination.&#8221; <br><br>In Italy, there are indications that fears of a link between leukaemia affecting troops who served in Bosnia and Kosovo and the use of depleted uranium shells in both operations is having a serious impact on recruiting. General Franco Angioni, a retired commander, said that the scare over depleted uranium was giving potential recruits &#8220;pause for thought&#8221;. <br><br>Italy is in the process of changing from a conscripted army to a professional force. &#8220;We should have 50,000 professional recruits being processed at this stage, but in fact we only have 20,000,&#8221; he told Il Messaggero. <br><br>Eight Italian soldiers have died from leukaemia or cancerous tumours after serving in the Balkans. A German Red Cross nurse has also died. <br><br>In Greece, Akis Tsochatzopoulos, the Defence Minister, said he would not rule out withdrawing the 1,600 Greek soldiers from Kosovo if a link was found between leukaemia and the use of depleted uranium weapons, although he pledged his Government would not act unilaterally. <br><br>Gerhard Schrцder, the German Chancellor, called on Nato yesterday to release all available information on the use of depleted uranium. He made clear that he opposed using such weapons. <br><br>The World Health Organisation said yesterday that it doubted that depleted uranium shells used by the Americans in the Balkans over the past decade had caused blood cancer among Nato troops. <br><br>&#8220;Based on our studies it is unlikely that soldiers in Kosovo ran a high risk of contracting leukaemia from exposure to radiation from depleted uranium,&#8221; Michael Repacholi, an expert from the organisation, said. However, he said that children playing in former conflict areas where the weapons had exploded could be at risk. <br><br>A Serbian health official said yesterday that tests carried out on 500 civilians in southern Serbia, where American depleted uranium shells had exploded, had uncovered no linked illnesses. <br><br>In Britain, the Ministry of Defence said that the Army and the Royal Navy held stocks of depleted uranium weapons. The Army had a stock of depleted uranium shells for use by Challenger tanks, and the Navy&#8217;s Type 42 destroyers and one aircraft carrier were equipped with the Phalanx Gatling gun, which fired depleted uranium shells. <br><br>The Royal Society is studying the possible health risks posed by depleted uranium weapons. In a statement yesterday, Professor Brian Heap, vice-president of the society, said the study had not been commissioned by the Ministry of Defence. He added: &#8220;We wish to emphasise that the study was initiated independently. It will be carrying out its estimates of exposure, doses and health effects during and after the use of depleted uranium munitions.&#8221; <br><br>Professor Brian Spratt, who is carrying out the study, said that it was right to take the issue seriously. He told Channel 4: &#8220;We do have to be careful because depleted uranium is mildy radioactive and it&#8217;s chemically poisonous.&#8221; <br><br>Igor Ivanov, the Russian Foreign Minister, said an independent inquiry into Nato&#8217;s use of depleted uranium shells should be conducted by the UN, WHO and International Atomic Energy Agency.</font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Christian Science Monitor:Aftershocks from anti-tank shells </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">EU and NATO officials meet Tuesday, as concern mounts over use of DU bullets. <br><br>By Scott Peterson <br>Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor <br><br>MOSCOW ,TUESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2001  <br><br>All military commanders know "collateral damage" to unintended targets, like civilians, is an unavoidable part of modern warfare. <br><br>But now the Pentagon's most potent armor-piercing weapon is itself taking a major hit. It's being accused of contributing to deaths of allied troops deployed in the Balkans, causing a major upheaval within the NATO alliance, and raising questions anew about whether it should be banned outright. <br><br>A string of suspicious deaths and illnesses among European troops that served in Bosnia and Kosovo has been attributed by some to the US use of radioactive "depleted uranium" bullets, or DU. <br><br>For years, US and allied officials denied that DU battlefield exposures could result in severe health problems. But across most of Europe in recent weeks, reported cases of cancer have emerged, causing the number of official inquiries to spiral. On Saturday, an Italian military watchdog group - set up to monitor health and safety in the armed forces - drew a link between the deaths from cancer of six peacekeepers who served in the Balkans, to DU. <br><br>In one instance shortly after the conflict in the town of Djakovica, the Monitor observed Italian troops manning a checkpoint set 100 yards downwind of a bombed Serbian position that was contaminated by radioactive DU dust. Despite strict military rules in the West regarding the handling of DU - which normally require US forces to use respirators, protective suits, and have 14 licenses from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission - Kosovo residents have never been warned by NATO of any DU danger. <br><br>A toxic heavy metal, DU doesn't disappear: It loses half its radioactivity every 4.5 billion years. <br><br>"The question is: Now that the genie is out of the bottle, how do you get it back in? The answer is: you can't," says Malcolm Hooper, a medicinal chemist at the University of Sunderland in northeast England and a member of the British Legion's Gulf War Illnesses Inter-Parliamentary group. <br><br>"It will intensify the call for a ban, because these are indiscriminate weapons," he adds. "Of course, the consequence is that the military will lose a very powerful weapon." <br><br>The Pentagon and Britain's defense ministry - which both rely on DU as the most effective armor-piercing bullet in their arsenals - rule out a link between DU and any health problems, and say they see no evidence of what's been labeled "Balkan Syndrome." <br><br>When the issue is taken up Tuesday in separate meetings of the European Union and NATO security committees, European officials may call for further investigations into DU health effects - and whether it should be banned. NATO Secretary-General George Robertson will afterward visit Sweden, which presently holds the rotating EU presidency. <br><br>"It is clear that if there is even a minimal risk, these arms must be abolished," European Commission President Romano Prodi said last week. "It is important that we act," added Swedish Defense Minister Bjorn von Sydow, echoing a growing body of opinion in Europe. <br><br>The concern sweeping the continent was sparked in December, when Italy announced that 30 of its Balkans veterans had been diagnosed with serious illnesses. It has been further fanned by preliminary findings of a UN investigation, released Friday, showing that eight of 11 inspected DU impact sites in Kosovo - out of 112 identified by NATO - showed traces of radiation. DU bullet fragments were found lying exposed on the ground. Full study results are due in early March. <br><br>A host of NATO and EU members are rushing to test deployed troops and Balkan veterans. Britain and Germany have so far refused, stating that they see no need. Besides Italy, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Portugal in the past week have reported similar illnesses or deaths. <br><br>US forces have experienced no Balkans-related cases or health-problem patterns, officials say. <br><br>The debate over DU and its adverse effects stretches back to the 1991 Gulf War, when American forces used it in combat for the first time. One in 7 American Gulf War veterans claim a variety of ailments known as "Gulf War Syndrome," many of which are similar to recently reported European health problems. <br><br>The Pentagon says it will cooperate fully with all requests for DU data, though UN and NATO investigators in the past said they came up against a "brick wall" from Washington on the issue. <br><br>"We have not found any link between illnesses and exposure to DU," Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said last week, adding that it's "premature" to link DU and leukemia. <br><br>Despite alarmist headlines in the Balkans - "NATO was worse than Chernobyl," read Serbia's popular Vecernje Novosti newspaper - Kosovo's ethnic Albanians point to another concern. Moderate leader Ibrahim Rugova has warned that the bigger risk might be an exodus of NATO peacekeepers who police Kosovo. <br><br>Bernard Kouchner, Kosovo's chief UN administrator, has asked the World Health Organization to help assess DU risks in the province. The view among civilians is a "mixture of wishful thinking" that DU is not a threat, and a "feeling of being helpless to change anything, even if it is true," says Ardian Arifaj, news editor of the largest Kosovo daily newspaper, Koha Ditore, in the provincial capital Pristina. <br><br>Though there is little systematic data, "no pattern" of health problems has emerged, and so far there is "no panic," he says. "We will have to stay and face any consequences. But on the other hand, no one is ready to blame NATO for hitting the Serbs." <br><br>DU is a by-product of the nuclear industry that is an effective bullet because of its high-density, not its low-level radioactivity. A DU bullet bores through armor, burning at such intensity that gas fumes and ammunition in the targeted tank ignite. As the bullet burns, it releases clouds of tiny radioactive particles that can be eaten, inhaled, or carried long distances by the wind. Such dust emits alpha radiation 20 times more powerful than other forms of radiation and especially damaging to body tissue. "It's not rocket science," says Professor Hooper. "It's a question of internal radiation, and when alpha particles are internalized, you have a big problem." <br><br>"It was extremely irresponsible not to issue some type of warning, if [the Pentagon] knew where they shot the DU 1-1/2 years ago," says Dan Fahey, a DU expert and US veteran activist. "Hopefully they will learn a lesson from this, that if you're going to use DU in combat, you have to take basic safety measures. You have to keep people away from these areas, and mark them." <br><br>He points to a 1990 US military report that predicted public awareness of any DU use would make the weapon "politically unacceptable" and result in pressure to ban it. <br><br>"We've put a lot of evidence to [authorities] in the past, and now people are beginning to ... listen," says Terry Gooding, with the UK Gulf Veterans Association. "They say it's not a problem," he adds. "But how many people have to die before they put their hands up and say: 'We made a boo-boo?' " </font><br></p>
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<p><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="Navy"><center>The Independent:British peace-keepers catch nine ethnic Albanian rebels in Kosovo </center></font><br></strong><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000">By Fisnik Abrashi <br><br>8 January 2001 <br><br>Nine men suspected of membership of a radical ethnic Albanian guerrilla group were detained by British peacekeepers when they tried to enter Kosovo from a tense region beyond its borders, the alliance said yesterday. <br><br>Major Tim Pierce, a Nato spokesman, said the soldiers gave chase on Saturday after observing the men entering Kosovo from a region in southern Serbia that is home to a predominantly ethnic Albanian population. A tenth man remained at large. The 10, armed and in uniform, dropped their weapons and fled after being challenged by a British patrol. A Nato statement said 22 rifles were confiscated. <br><br>Lieutenant-Colonel Stephen Kilpatrick, the commander of the British unit, said another four men &#8211; also suspects but unarmed and in civilian clothing &#8211; were detained separately. He did not offer details. <br><br>The nine uniformed suspects were being questioned at Camp Bondsteel, the main American base in eastern Kosovo. The arrests were made in the US sector. <br><br>The group was spotted after entering eastern Kosovo from the Presevo Valley area, the site of months-long tensions between ethnic Albanian radicals and lightly armed Serb police. The radicals call themselves the "Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac," or UCPMB, named after three predominantly ethnic Albanian towns that the insurgents want united with Kosovo as part of ethnic Albanian hopes of independence for the province. <br><br>Although controlled by the UN and Nato under terms of the 1999 peace agreement that ended the alliance's bombing of Yugoslavia, Kosovo formally remains part of Serbia, the main Yugoslav republic. <br><br>UCPMB fighters operate in the five kilometre (three-mile) wide buffer, the Ground Safety Zone, between Kosovo and the rest of Serbia. The zone was established in June 1999 to protect Nato-led peace-keepers who entered the province after Yugoslav troops and police were forced to leave. <br><br>Yugoslav forces are not allowed to enter the zone, except for lightly armed police. Kosovo peace-keepers cannot enter the zone either because it is on the Yugoslav-controlled part of the boundary. That has enabled the UCPMB to operate in the zone with virtual impunity. <br><br>Commander Lleshi, the leader of the rebels, has demanded a multi-national peace-keeping force to keep apart Serb troops and Albanians. <br><br>The government in Belgrade considers the area strategic because it controls the land routes south to Macedonia and Greece. <br><br>The ethnic Albanian insurgents killed four Serb police officers in November and overran an extensive trench network constructed by the Serb police in the zone. <br><br>Four Serbs were abducted last month but were released after intercession by Nato-led peace-keepers. Six more Serbs were taken hostage more recently but released after Nato intervention. <br><br>There have been concerns in the West that the clashes in southern Serbia could explode into violence similar to the 1999 conflict in Kosovo, which began when the former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic cracked down on ethnic Albanians seeking independence. <br><br>That drive triggered the 78-day Nato bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 and the deployment of the alliance's peace-keepers in Kosovo. (AP) </font><br></p>
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