THE INDEPENDENT (London)
18 January 2001
18 January 2001
Euro MPs defy Nato and seek ban on DU
By Stephen Castle in Brussels
The European Parliament called for a suspension of the use of depleted uranium (DU) munitions yesterday, rejecting safety assurances from Nato and heightening pressure for a formal moratorium.
The day before, the alliance had rejected claims of a link between DU and leukaemia cases suffered by Balkans peace-keepers.
UN investigators have found minute traces of enriched uranium, much more radioactive than DU, on ammunition tips at sites attacked by Nato during the Kosovo conflict.
Although the parliament's vote has no legal force, it underlines the continuing international disquiet over the effects of DU, not only on servicemen and women but on the civilian population of Bosnia and Kosovo.
The UN Environment Programme has said ammunition tips found at sites targeted by Nato during the 1999 Kosovo conflict contained traces of enriched uranium from nuclear reprocessing plants.
That raises the prospect that some of the "depleted uranium" ammunition may contain more hazardous plutonium. "One part, a very small part, has been made out of recycled nuclear material coming from nuclear reactors and reprocessed," said Pekka Haavisto, chairman of the UNEP, which visited Kosovo last year.
The faint traces discovered were of uranium 236, which comes only from nuclear power stations. Mr Haavisto said: "Everybody knows U-236 is much more radioactive than depleted uranium." But he said with just 0.0028 per cent found in the samples, there did not appear to be increased risk of cancer.
He added: "The amount in the material is so small that at least our laboratory is saying that this doesn't change the overall picture of radiological effects." Nato said very small traces inevitably remain after the process of separating enriched from depleted uranium but that this is factored into all the figures used to calculate safety. Nato fired about 40,000 rounds of armour-piercing DU ammunition in the Balkans and Kosovo during military interventions in 1994-95 and 1999.
But the scale of the political fallout presents a massive potential problem for Nato if it tries to use DU munitions again, because the alliance operates on the basis of unanimity.
Several countries would now probably refuse to take part in any military mission involving DU arms. Some defence analysts believe that, like chemical weapons, those using DU may have crossed a threshold of international unacceptability and Nato would be well-advised to look for alternatives.
Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy high representative and Nato's secretary-general when the alliance intervened in Bosnia and Kosovo told the European Parliament: "Quite frankly there is no evidence of any link, but we should not be satisfied with that.
"If there is any suggestion there might be a link, I would convey it to you immediately. We are all democracies. We have nothing to conceal."
The European Commissioner for the Environment, Margot Wallstrom, said: "It is wise to be very careful, to be very prudent. Maybe there has to be some long-term study to be absolutely sure about the effects of DU.
"There is no unanimously-held scientific opinion on the effects of DU. There are different views. It is necessary to look at the 'cocktail effects' – when you have different factors involved."
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