It is not generally known that the war against Serbia is introducing a terrible danger, and not only to the Serbs. The University of Skopje, in neighbouring Macedonia, is reporting high levels of radioactivity there. As in Iraq, where the same depleted uranium (DU) weapons were used, exposure to high levels of radioactivity will lead to birth defects, cancers and leukaemia, particularly in the younger age groups.

The Medical Association for the Prevention of War (Australia) (MAPW), The Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) and the Doctors Reform Society (DRS), have joined together to express their grave concerns at reports that a weapon which emits low-level radioactivity over a long period of time is being used against the people of Serbia.

Dr Susan Wareham, President of the Medical Association for the Prevention of War said "Battlefields in Iraq have been contaminated forever, and it is shameful that this same weapon which is strongly suspected of causing cancers in children is being used now against the people and the environment of the Balkans."

At a US Department of Defence briefing, Major General Wald has stated that NATO is using depleted uranium (DU) as a tank-piercing weapon against the Serbs. DU penetrators pierce tanks and other armour very, then ignite. The radioactive particles thus released can be carried by wind or water over a wide area and stay in the environment permanently.

Depleted uranium, or U-238, is readily available as it is part of the waste produced during uranium enrichment for both nuclear power and nuclear weapons production. Its half-life is 4,500 billion years. DU is dangerous as it emits alpha radiation and, when inhaled, it can lodge in the lungs and spread from there to other organs. In addition DU, being a heavy metal, is very chemically toxic.

Over 300 tons of DU were used in Iraq in the brief ground war of 1991. The rates of childhood leukaemia and of congenital abnormalities among the people of Iraq has risen dramatically since 1991. DU is widely believed to be responsible for this. In addition it is a possible factor in the ill-health of over 100,000 US and allied service personnel who fought in the Gulf War and an unknown number of Iraqi veterans. Despite knowledge of the danger of this material, service personnel were not informed about it.

The UN Human Rights Commission has also expressed its concern at the use of DU in weapons, because of its indiscriminate effect. In October 1998 the World Health Organisation commenced a two-year study on the health effects of DU, particularly in relation to the increased rates of leukaemia and other malignancies in Iraq.

The MAPW, the PHAA and the DRS also expressed grave concern that another long-lived weapon is being used against the people of Serbia - cluster bombs. These weapons, when dropped from the air, scatter dozens of devices which behave like land mines and are a particular threat to children. They will remain, to kill and maim children and adults, long after hostilities cease.

MAPW, the Public Health Association of Australia and the DRS, have called for the withdrawal of all depleted uranium weapons and cluster bombs from the Balkans.

13 May, 1999

Susan Wareham