NIN, Belgrade, Yugoslavia
Issue 2611, January 11, 2001

The dust from Kosovo

According to information provided by official sources, the citizens of
Serbia, not including Kosovo (a term perhaps more suitable now than ever
before), have a good chance of saving themselves from the “Balkans
Syndrome”, an illness which has been connected with the deaths from leukemia
of 23 soldiers of the Western alliance who were stationed in Bosnia and in
Kosovo, and with a large number of those suffering from health problems.

What is the basis for this prognosis? First of all, according to the latest
official data, only five locations outside of Kosovo were exposed to the
influence of depleted uranium. According to military data made public on
Monday, there is a total of six locations. Last year’s data by the former
Yugoslav government talks about eight such locations. In all instances, the
locations given are in the region of Bujanovac and Presevo, one near Vranje
and on the Lustica peninsula in Boka Kotorska. All this is true, to repeat,
for the regions outside of Kosovo. As far as Kosovo is concerned, the
situation is as follows: an ecological catastrophe of as yet inconceivable
proportions.

Alpha radiation

In all cases contamination resulted following operations by American A-10
planes which fired munitions with a depleted uranium core intended for
battle against armored vehicles and fortified buildings.

The official position of NATO, confirmed on Tuesday when the request of
Italy and Germany for a temporary moratorium on this type of weapon, is that
there are no indications that depleted uranium is detrimental to health. One
day earlier, Madeleine Albright stated that there is no evidence which would
lead us to conclude that the cases of leukemia might be connected with this
radioactive material. Technically, this is correct. “At the present time
science would be hard pressed to determine that cancer or leukemia have in
fact been caused by exposure to uranium instead of another factor, say
smoking,” explains Radojko Pavlovic, the director of reactor dosimetry at
the Institute for Nuclear Sciences in Vinca, which has been involved since
the beginning of the war in analyses of potentially radioactive localities
and objects. America, practically, is playing the hand of the limitations of
medical science.

Analyses of depleted uranium (and not only analyses conducted by NATO)
indicate that it is a material with acceptable levels of gamma radiation.
This is why this heavy metal also has a civilian application: because it is
almost twice as heavy as lead, it is used as a counter-ballast in balancing
airplanes. It is even used as a filter for protection from radioactivity!
How is it then possible for an apparently not very dangerous material to
have become a global menace?

The munitions used for A-10 planes consist of a more or less normal large
sized bullet (30 mm) which has, instead of the regular steel jacket, a core
made of depleted uranium. This uranium is very heavy and rigid and, Radojko
Pavlovic explains, its purpose is to penetrate the armor of tanks with
kinetic force. When this occurs, most of the 292 gram heavy uranium core
incinerates; it oxides or, in layman’s terms, turns into dust. The dust,
which enters the lungs and body like any other dust, there assumes a
chemically stable form and can no longer be flushed out by any means. And
then the most terrible effect of this uranium is manifested: alpha
radiation. Alpha radiation is mentioned less frequently because in most
situations it is harmless: its range is only several millimeters and it can
be stopped by a plain sheet of paper. However, when it is manifested inside
the body, an extremely destructive effect on the cell takes place causing
gene mutation, cancer and similar changes. For purposes of comparison, alpha
radiation is 20 times more destructive on living organisms than that of its
more popular brother, gamma radiation. Another form of radiation present in
depleted uranium, beta radiation, is also harmful but at this time we will
not be discussing its effects.

Luck and skill

To understand the extent of the threat, one also needs to know that 100
grams of incinerated depleted uranium produces one kilogram of radioactive
dust. Most of this dust settles in a circle of 200 meters but there are no
guarantees that the wind will not blow and spread it further during the
course of the next four and a half billion years, the so-called half-life of
uranium. This does not mean that this substance will become completely
harmless even after the next four and a half billion years even though this
hardly of concern to us at this moment for understandable reasons.

According to data from the FRY Government, during the NATO aggression
approximately 50,000 (NATO says 31,000) of these bullets were fired, of
which 3,000 to 5,000 were fired at targets in Kosovo and Metohija. We should
not forget Metohija because it and the region along the Albanian border were
targeted by the greatest amounts of radioactive munitions.

For inhabitants outside Kosovo and Metohija, Radojko Pavlovic has a
consoling bit of news: “Either by luck or skill of the army, not a single
armored vehicle was hit outside Kosovo. This means that these bullets simply
buried themselves deep into the earth; the depleted uranium they contain was
not incinerated and consequently there is no uranium dust, either.”

There is danger, however, of another sort. Uranium, like all heavy metals
(radioactive or not), is toxic. Its retention in the earth threatens to
enter the water supply, plant life, animals and people. Pavlovic said that
the process is not one which occurs rapidly but that the bullets need to be
removed as soon as possible. The problem, however, is that a clean up of
this nature is extremely expensive; and in addition to collection of this
waste material, its storage must be paid for as well. Zeljka Ilic, a
physician specialized in protection from radioactivity (and president of the
Democratic Party’s health committee) points out that Vinca has no money for
maintenance to prevent already stored material from leaking, let alone to
collect and store new waste material.

Since there has been a healthy skepticism in official statements with
respect to radiological dangers ever since Chernobyl, especially statements
issued by Vinca, a dose of reserve in accepting these explanations is in
order. One cannot, therefore, be critical of someone who is asking how
radioactivity researchers can know that all NATO projectiles in a given
locality missed their mark and, if that is indeed the case, what the planes
were targeting to begin with. For example, it is known that one of four
locations where DU munitions were used is the hill of Pljackovica where an
RTS communications relay was destroyed.

“During the war we controlled over 90 percent of the localities hit
regardless of the type of weapons used. Only in four locations did
instrument measurements confirm an increase in the level of radiation:
Pljackovica, Bratoselce, Reljan and Borovac. These are mainly hills,” says
Radojko Pavlovic. For obvious reasons, Pavlovic cannot state precisely what
the NATO pilots were shooting at but we can assume that they may have been
tank decoys which, as we know, suffered severe casualties during the war. We
should not forget that in Kosmet NATO also demonstrated monumental
inefficiency in destroying tanks. According to statements by the NATO
commander, after the withdrawal of the Yugoslav Army less than ten destroyed
armored transporters and only three of four destroyed tanks were left
behind.

Cruise radiation

The possible presence of depleted uranium in cruise missiles has a
completely different dimension of radiological danger. There are indications
(“in technical literature,” according to Colonel Milan Zaric, the head of
the Yugoslav Army’s Atomic-Biological-Chemical Defense Administration) that
this material is used as counter-ballast in cruise missiles for the same
reason that it is used, as noted above, in airplanes - to improve the cruise
capability of the missiles

The results of this would be catastrophic. Cruise missiles hit many targets
in downtown Belgrade and other densely populated areas. Taking into
consideration that one such counter-ballast has a weight of up to 20
kilograms, it is clear what this would entail. However, official sources
deny the existence of any ionizing radiation in connection with cruise
missile explosions.

Commenting on analyses of buildings hit in Belgrade, Radojko Pavlovic says:
“We found no trace of uranium. With the technology at our disposal, which is
highly reliable, I think that had there been any, we would have found it.

Furthermore, Pavlovic says that he has inspected a large number of intact,
unexploded missiles deactivated by Yugoslav Air Force air defense
operations. “One fell right next to the Vinca Institute. I found no traces
of radiation either on it nor on the others I personally inspected; to the
best of my knowledge, the same is true of the missiles which were inspected
by the army.”

According to his statements, Colonel Zaric personally inspected the General
Staff building on five or six occasions and found no trace of contamination;
despite this, he added, “we are still afraid”. “If that should prove to be
the case, the consequences for us would be extremely serious, I would say
catastrophic.”

The method of determining whether exposure has occurred, according to Zeljka
Ilic, is to draw blood samples from those persons suspected of having
received ionizing radiation as soon as possible. At that point, Ilic says,
exposed persons are still in good health and can even be treated by bone
marrow injections.

“If this is not done, then great responsibility falls on authority figures
who could have and should have interceded,” says Zeljka Ilic.

According to data from the Military Medical Academy (VMA) (statement of
Major General Krgovic, see below), 1,080 soldiers of the Yugoslav Army are
being tested; however, since their observation did not begin until 2000,
this means that testing was irretrievable late.

What is more, our authorities became alarmed by the entire situation only
after the “Balkans Syndrome” became a global issue and apparently some of
the dangerous locations were sealed off only days ago.

Costly alliance

NATO persists in its official position that DU is not dangerous. An
admission to the contrary - despite obvious evidence that it is not - would
cost the American state enormous reparations and probably pose a major
threat to its system of health insurance. Gulf War veterans’ organizations
are fighting for the rights of approximately 130,000 people or every sixth
American soldier who fought in the Gulf War and is now suffering from a
variety of symptoms commonly described as “the Gulf Syndrome”. Depleted
uranium is just one on the list of real menaces to which American (and
Iraqi) soldiers and others were exposed during the course of that war. The
proud Americans went so far as exhibit destroyed Iraqi tanks hit by depleted
uranium missiles in the main public square in Kuwait.

The balance: according to research conducted at the request of the Gulf War
veterans, in 1992 there was a 58 percent increase in the number of
respiratory problems and a 43 percent increase in the number of heart
problems in comparison with data from three years earlier.

According to what we know at this time, we, the Serbs, the Americans’ enemy
in the war, got off scot-free in comparison with their allies, the Kuwaitis
and the Albanians. However, we should not forget that “Balkans Syndrome”
also applies to Bosnia and Herzegovina, that is, Republika Srpska, where,
according to some sources, the number of cancers among the civilian
population has increased by a third in comparison with earlier data.

The Americans’ relationship with their allies and toward Europe and
Europeans in general has a peculiar dimension. Radiological contamination
and the manner in which this war was waged in general represent a problem
for Europe and the “European allies” are stoically bearing it. They are even
bearing the fact that the Americans sent the Italians and the Germans to
those regions in which at appears that a radiological apocalypse has taken
place. The Italians and the Germans are now asking a moratorium on this
weapon but NATO, that is, the Americans, rejected the proposal, claiming
that DU is harmless.

Radojko Pavlovic says that the methodology which the Americans are using to
“prove” the safety of this weapon is very deceitful and could in fact be
used to prove anything. “They are claiming, for example, that radium is
approximately 30,000 times more radioactive than depleted uranium. That is
true; however, what they are not saying is that there are only 12 kilograms
of isolated radium on this entire planet while there are 500,000 tons of
depleted uranium only in the U.S. which they don’t know what to do with.”

It would be truly simple for the Americans to convince the whole world that
they are telling the truth. All they have to do is come out themselves and
inhale a little bit of the dust from Kosovo.

SRBOLJUB BOGDANOVIC
DIJANA IVANOVIC

We anticipated everything

Major-general Prof. Dr. Momcilo Krgovic, head of the Yugoslav Army’s
sanitation administration

On the basis of practices in Bosnia and Iraq, we anticipated that depleted
uranium munitions would also be used on our territory. Detection and
identification of these materials was carried out on a daily basis. These
efforts were immediately joined by ABHO and some civilian institutions;
consequently, for most of the war, the Yugoslav Army had double and triple
controls over the extent of use of these materials. During the war we took
materials from Kosovo - parts of equipment, soil and water samples - to Nis
to the Institute for Health Protection which is technically well equipped
and where detailed analyses were conducted.

All locations in Serbia where these substances were used were marked and
sealed off with the exception of one which, unfortunately, still is not.
These munitions were also used on the Lustrica peninsula at the entrance to
the gulf of Boka Kotorska.

The Yugoslav Army implemented both individual and collective measures of
protection for the soldiers, especially the use of maneuvers with troops and
equipment. I think that this mobility was what saved us.

We knew exactly even during the time of the war which units were in
proximity to the threatened regions. We had information by the next morning
on munitions used to target the General Staff building.

Immediately after the withdrawal of our army from Kosovo, we created a
procedure for troops who may have been exposed to radiation. Immediately
after the war, a plan was created to provide adequate medical observation
for soldiers where there was reason to implement this procedure. During the
course of the year 2000, in cooperation with district army commands, 1,080
army men were selected who were systematically examined and we found nothing
alarming. To date, there have been no cases of illness. They will be
examined regularly during the next five years. Only in the event that an
increase in certain kinds of illnesses among this group should manifest
itself would measures need to be taken in which the state would need to
involve itself. This is not excluded and consequently we must exercise great
caution; however there is no reason for panic nor for visits en masse to
physicians and hospitals.

Translated by S. Lazovic (Jan. 17, 2001)


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