Subject: Switzerland to lead international campaign to ban DU munitions
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2001 12:20:21 PST
From: C-afp@... (AFP)
Organization: Copyright 2001 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)
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GENEVA, Jan 18 (AFP) - Switzerland supports an international ban
on depleted uranium munitions and plans to lead a campaign to drum
up support for such a moratorium, President Moritz Leuenberger said
Thursday.
The Swiss government will present a proposal to the UN
conference on disarmament banning DU munitions at a session
scheduled for the fall, said the president.
Leuenberger said that although a link has not been proven
between exposure to DU weapons and a spate of cancer cases in former
Balkans peacekeepers, governments should take action to ban the
ammunitions.
"Even if a causal link has not been proven, even if there is
just a probability, we must act. We cannot wait," said Leuenberger
during a news conference.
Leuenberger said that Switzerland will seek to mobilise the
international community to support a ban on the munitions used by US
NATO forces in the Balkans and in the Gulf War.
European governments have raised concerns that the death of
about a dozen former Balkan peacekeepers who served on peace
missions there is linked to exposure to DU munitions.
NATO has repeatedly said that it cannot prove a link between the
illnesses and exposure to DU munitions and the World Health
Organisation has said that it was "unlikely" that a link existed.
The European parliament voted overwhelmingly Wednesday in favor
of a ban on DU munitions.