People's Democracy

Naresh ‘Nadeem’

COME April and two horrible years will have passed since the US-led NATO alliance began its inhuman bombardment against Yugoslavia. In the meantime, cities of the western world are gripped by a new scandal --- the scandal concerning the use of depleted uranium (DU) weapons by NATO forces in Yugoslavia last year. The people of Europe and the USA are incensed particularly over the fact that the NATO powers were well aware of the radioactive nature of the DU weapons they were using, and yet they tried to conceal from their own people and from their army personnel the fact of use of these weapons and the dangers they pose.

It has now come to light that over 31,000 DU shells, that is more than ten tonnes by weight, were fired against Yugoslavia in those horror-filled 78 days.

The fact is that the NATO powers acknowledged the fact only after the armymen in the NATO contingent in Kosovo contracted leukemia. Some of the military commanders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) are still attempting to deny any causal link between the use of depleted uranium weapons and the disease afflicting their personnel, even though the link is too clear to be ignored. If the disease has afflicted not a few stray individuals but a number of armymen stationed in one particular locality, it cannot evidently be explained away as a chance factor.

If the western world is not prepared to buy the clarifications and the explanations which the NATO powers are trying to advance, it is also because of one more factor. It is now well known that the US-UK forces had rather extensively used DU weapons against Iraq about a decade ago. Though the use of these weapons during the Operation Desert Storm was vehemently denied by the USA and UK for years together, they had had to eventually admit the fact, particularly after their own servicemen began to exhibit dangerous signs, followed naturally by public uproar against the use of DU weapons. The use of these weapons against Iraq is now well documented and was reported in these columns earlier.

The NATO powers once again tried to dupe the people of their respective countries by denying the use of DU weapons against Yugoslavia. And once again their attempt has failed equally miserably.

What has of late come to light is the fact that, while giving orders for the use of shells stuffed with depleted uranium, the NATO command was well aware of what results these shells were fraught with. The special instructions issued for the use of these DU weapons, in fact, stressed the need of taking precautionary measures while using these dangerous weapons. The NATO generals also claim that only tanks and other hardware, that come under fire with DU shells, require special caution, but this claim is also equally preposterous. The fact is that the DU weapons cause dangers even when they hit the ground. The reason is that they form aerosol after exploding. The small uranium particles thus released into the air contaminate the environment, and thereby cause a grave threat to the life and health of people. Those thus likely to get affected include not only the army personnel but also the civilians living in the areas of combat operations.

This brings to light one more perfidy perpetrated by the NATO forces. While the NATO men were at least instructed about what precautionary measures they must take, not one of the civilians was warned about the use of radioactive shells, or about what security measures they must take. Evidently, the NATO had had no fear, nor any compunction, about taking for granted the life of the civilian population in the concerned area.

Certain organisations have highlighted the great dangers that the depleted uranium weapons will breed for the affected population. According to the data released by the Russian ministry for emergency situations, the natural radiation background has exceeded the normal by 6 to 7 times in some areas of Kosovo and Serbia which were massively bombarded by the NATO aircraft with DU weapons. Independent medical experts have expressed the apprehension that at least 10,000 Kosovans will soon die because of the fall-outs of uranium radiation. If one adds to the figure the possible victims among the NATO armymen, some of whom are already suffering from leukemia, one may get an idea of the enormous extent of post-facto killings which the DU weapons will cause.

The use of DU weapons against Yugoslavia is thus set to repeat the history. As said earlier, apart from the Iraqis, it was the US soldiers themselves who fell victim to the contamination caused by the use of these weapons about a decade ago. According to a study, more than 1,000 people have already died of the fall-outs of uranium radiation during the Operation Desert Storm. Further, handicapped children, genetically contaminated with radiation, were born in the families of many of those who had participated in the Gulf war.

One believing in the theory of "poetic justice" may even say that those who sow the wind have to themselves reap the whirlwind. Those having reservations may, of course, add that it is not the political and military bosses of the blood-thirsty imperialist powers but their hapless canon-fodders and their families who have to pay the price for the perfidy caused by their masters.

By bombarding Yugoslavia with DU weapons, the NATO has also violated the international agreements on radiation security, as this ruthless bombardment has caused large-scale radioactive contamination of soil, air and water in the combat area. Was it due to this fact that the NATO leaders advised their army personnel stationed in Kosovo not to use any water and food locally available? Was this the reason for the Pentagon’s insistence that the US contingent be deployed in those areas of Kosovo which had not come under DU weapons’ fire?

The use of radioactive shells has, in fact, dealt a heavy blow to the environmental security of the entire Balkan peninsula. As the uranium particles have contaminated the water of the Danube river, it is almost certain that they would affect all the countries through which the river flows, including those that are not a part of the Balkan peninsula. The entire south eastern Europe is thus threatened with radiation hazards. As one knows, radioactive contamination causes long-term effects. Moreover, as the experience of the 1986 accident at Chernobyl nuclear power plant shows, to eliminate the effects of radioactive contamination is a very complex and costly process. Hence the well-grounded concern of the inhabitants of the whole area.

Along with the aftereffects of the brutal NATO bombardment against Yugoslavia, yet another aspect has now come to light. The NATO bombardment also destroyed many Yugoslav chemical enterprises that were using toxic substances in their production processes. According to experts, this has contaminated the soil and water with large amounts of mercury and other dangerous pollutants, and this fact too would as adversely affect the inhabitants of the area as the use of DU shells would do. The US-led NATO alliance has thus not only turned the Kosovo problem into an excuse for furthering the hegemonistic drive of US imperialism in the region; it has also posed a grave threat to the ecological security of Yugoslavia and also of the whole of Europe.