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Sunday, January 21 7:45 AM SGT

Depleted uranium: German defence minister slams US information policy

SARAJEVO, Jan 20 (AFP) -

German Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping blasted Washington on Saturday over a
lack of
information concerning the use of depleted uranium munitions by the United
States in Bosnia and
Kosovo.

Scharping, speaking late Saturday after visiting German peacekeepers stationed
in Bosnia, said
Berlin would not content itself with "pages and pages from the Internet" in its
demands for full
information on the possible health effects of the munitions on troops.

In an interview carried in the German Sunday paper Welt am Sonntag to be
published Sunday,
Scharping said it was not possible to inform "an (NATO) alliance partner like
Germany with
documents published on the Internet".

Scharping was referring to US responses to inquiries from Berlin on the subject,
when he said
Washington had informed Berlin that the relevant information had long been
available in full on the
Internet.

He told the German weekly that it was essential that NATO governments should
inform one another
"immediately, openly and officially" about such risks.

Several European NATO countries, and the alliance itself, have recently launched
health studies into
the possible effects of depleted uranium on soldiers, after reports that some
service personnel who
served in the Balkans have contracted cancer.

Scharping will go to Kosovo on Sunday following his visit to the Rajlovac base.

Concern over the use of DU munitions by US aircraft taking part in NATO strikes
against Bosnia
and Yugoslav figured largely in Scharping's discussions with soldiers.

Germany has 7,200 soldiers deployed on Balkans peacekeeping duties, more than
5,000 of them
with the KFOR mission in Kosovo and neighbouring Macedonia. The remainder are
with the SFOR
mission in Bosnia-Hercegovina.