Extreme deformities in Iraqi children 1 and    2
 

US forces' use of depleted uranium weapons is illegal By Neil Mackay, Investigations Editor UK Sunday Herald, March 30, 2003 http://www.sundayherald.com/32522 BRITISH and American coalition forces are using depleted uranium (DU)  shells in the war against Iraq and deliberately flouting a United  Nations resolution which classifies the munitions as illegal weapons of  mass destruction. DU contaminates land, causes ill-health and cancers among the soldiers  using the weapons, the armies they target and civilians, leading to  birth defects in children. Professor Doug Rokke, ex-director of the Pentagon's depleted uranium  project -- a former professor of environmental science at Jacksonville  University and onetime US army colonel who was tasked by the US  department of defence with the post-first Gulf war depleted uranium  desert clean-up -- said use of DU was a 'war crime'. Rokke said: 'There is a moral point to be made here. This war was about  Iraq possessing illegal weapons of mass destruction -- yet we are using  weapons of mass destruction ourselves.' He added: 'Such double-standards  are repellent.' The latest use of DU in the current conflict came on Friday when an  American A10 tankbuster plane fired a DU shell, killing one British  soldier and injuring three others in a 'friendly fire' incident. According to a August 2002 report by the UN subcommission, laws which  are breached by the use of DU shells include: the Universal Declaration  of Human Rights; the Charter of the United Nations; the Genocide  Convention; the Convention Against Torture; the four Geneva Conventions  of 1949; the Conventional Weapons Convention of 1980; and the Hague  Conventions of 1899 and 1907, which expressly forbid employing 'poison  or poisoned weapons' and 'arms, projectiles or materials calculated to  cause unnecessary suffering'. All of these laws are designed to spare  civilians from unwarranted suffering in armed conflicts. DU has been blamed for the effects of Gulf war syndrome -- typified by  chronic muscle and joint pain, fatigue and memory loss -- among 200,000  US soldiers after the 1991 conflict. It is also cited as the most likely cause of the 'increased number of  birth deformities and cancer in Iraq' following the first Gulf war. 'Cancer appears to have increased between seven and 10 times and  deformities between four and six times,' according to the UN subcommission. The Pentagon has admitted that 320 metric tons of DU were left on the  battlefield after the first Gulf war, although Russian military experts  say 1000 metric tons is a more accurate figure. In 1991, the Allies fired 944,000 DU rounds or some 2700 tons of DU  tipped bombs. A UK Atomic Energy Authority report said that some 500,000  people would die before the end of this century, due to radioactive  debris left in the desert. The use of DU has also led to birth defects in the children of Allied  veterans and is believed to be the cause of the 'worrying number of  anophthalmos cases -- babies born without eyes' in Iraq. Only one in 50  million births should be anophthalmic, yet one Baghdad hospital had  eight cases in just two years. Seven of the fathers had been exposed to  American DU anti-tank rounds in 1991. There have also been cases of  Iraqi babies born without the crowns of their skulls, a deformity also  linked to DU shelling. A study of Gulf war veterans showed that 67% had children with severe  illnesses, missing eyes, blood infections, respiratory problems and  fused fingers. Rokke told the Sunday Herald: 'A nation's military personnel cannot  wilfully contaminate any other nation, cause harm to persons and the  environment and then ignore the consequences of their actions. 'To do so is a crime against humanity. 'We must do what is right for the citizens of the world -- ban DU.' He called on the US and UK to 'recognise the immoral consequences of  their actions and assume responsibility for medical care and thorough  environmental remediation'. He added: 'We can't just use munitions which leave a toxic wasteland  behind them and kill indiscriminately. 'It is equivalent to a war crime.' Rokke said that coalition troops were currently fighting in the Gulf  without adequate respiratory protection against DU contamination. The Sunday Herald has previously revealed how the Ministry of Defence  had test-fired some 6350 DU rounds into the Solway Firth over more than  a decade, from 1989 to 1999.

The quantitative analysis of depleted uranium isotopes in British, Canadian, and U.S. Gulf War veterans. Horan P, Dietz L, Durakovic A.
 

Depleted Uranium Contamination Found in Bosnia, says  UNEP Lisa Schein Geneva 30 Mar 2003, 19:02 UTC VOA (Voice of America) http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=DFE476A2-D7E9-4D77-9D16E6222FEAF06D The U.N. Environment Program says it has found contamination from  depleted uranium used to harden anti-tank weapons used by NATO forces  during the 1994-95 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. UNEP says the substance  has contaminated local supplies of drinking water at one site, and can  still be found in dust particles suspended in the air. But, the findings  are not alarming experts. The U.N. report says the recorded contamination levels are very low and  do not present immediate radioactive or toxic risks for the environment  or human health. The head of the team that carried out the investigation, Pekka Haavisto,  says World Health Organization scientists also cannot establish a link  between depleted uranium and health problems in Bosnia-Herzegovina. "Their first conclusion was that based on the data that was available,  they cannot see any link between the [depleted uranium] attacks or  [depleted uranium] sites and the health problems," he said. Nevertheless, the World Health Organization recommends that anyone with  a specific health claim should be examined carefully. In October, 70 scientists and environmental experts visited 15 sites in  Bosnia-Herzegovina, which had been bombed during the war. Mr. Haavisto says the team found the presence of depleted uranium at two  locations. He says neither of these sites had been properly cleaned up. He says it is cause for concern because one place is a busy industrial  area and the other is a military garrison where young soldiers are being  trained in a place that is contaminated by depleted uranium. Both sites  were targeted by warheads containing depleted uranium during the war. "The levels of contamination, the levels of radioactivity are very low,  the levels of toxicity are quite low - for the precaution, our immediate  recommendation is that these areas be immediately cleaned up," he said. The U.N. report records the first instance of depleted uranium  contamination of groundwater in Bosnia. It recommends that alternative  water sources be used and that water samples be monitored for several  years. Listen to Lisa Schlein's report (RealAudio)  http://www.voanews.com/mediastore/schlein_UNEP_uranium_30mar03.ram Schlein report - Download 300k (RealAudio)  http://www.voanews.com/mediastore/schlein_UNEP_uranium_30mar03.rm

Issues on the Use and Effects of Depleted Uranium Weapons

The quantitative analysis of depleted uranium isotopes in British, Canadian, and U.S. Gulf War veterans. Horan P, Dietz L, Durakovic A.