Child deformed by depleted uranium
In the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in 1991, Steve Fetter and Frank
Von Hippel from the Uranium Medical Research Center (UMRC), Washington
DC, reported on extensive research by "Field' teams of the UMRC in
Afghanistan. The testimony of fathers and mothers is horrifying and
explains to us why Afghanis hate us more than the Taliban:
"What
else do the Americans want? They killed us. They turned our new-borns
into horrific deformations. And they turned our farm lands into
grave-yards, and destroyed our homes. On top of all this their planes
fly over and spray us with bullets. We have nothing to lose. We will
fight them the same way we fought the previous invader." (2)
Let's consider what happened in the war of redemption that the allies
fought in Yugoslavia. There too they used depleted-uranium weapons and
turned the Bosnian landscape into a graveyard. Reports Michel
Chossudovsky:
"The
bombing of Yugoslavia is best described as a 'low intensity nuclear
war' using toxic radioactive shells and missiles. Amply documented, the
radioactive fall-out potentially puts millions of people at risk
throughout the Balkans.
"In
March 1999, NATO launched the air raids invoking broad humanitarian
principles and ideals. NATO had 'come to the rescue' of ethnic Albanian
Kosovars on the grounds they were being massacred by Serb forces. The
forensic reports by the FBI and Europol confirm that the massacres did
not occur. In a cruel irony, Albanian Kosovar civilians are among the
main victims of DU radiation. (3)
Consider the future of the village of Hadzici as that of each Libyan
village where depleted uranium will spread on the winds in Libya:
"The
village is empty, the cemetery full. Soon there will be no more room
for the dead. Among refugee families who moved to Bratunac from Hadzici
[in the outskirts of Sarajevo] there is a hardly a household not
cloaked in mourning. On them are fresh wreaths, some with flowers that
have not yet wilted.
"On the
crosses the years of death 1998, 1999, 2000 and the grave of a 20
year-old woman at the end of the rows. She died a few days ago. No one
could even imagine that in only one or two years the part of the
cemetery set aside for civilians would be doubly full.
"It
happens often that one of the natives of Hadzici will suddenly die. Or
they will go to see the doctor in Belgrade and when they come back
their relatives will tell us that they are dying of cancer. Chief
doctor Slavica Jovanovic conducted an investigation and proved that in
1998 the mortality rate far exceeded the birth rate. She showed that it
wasn't just a question of fate but something far more serious.
"Zoran
Stankovic, the renowned pathologist from the Military Medical Academy
(VMA) determined that over 200 of his patients from this area died of
cancer, most probably due to the effects of depleted uranium in dropped
NATO bombs five years ago. But someone quickly silenced the public and
everything was hushed up.
"'You
see, our cemetery is full of fresh graves while the people from Vinca
[Nuclear Institute] claim that uranium isn't dangerous. What other kind
of evidence do you need if people are dying?'
The
refugees from Hadzici arrived in Bratunac in a sizeable number. There
were almost 5,000 of them. There were 1,000 just in the collective
centers. Now, says Zelenovic, 'there are about 600 of them left. And
they certainly had nowhere else to go'. Someone dies of cancer every
third day; there is no more room in the cemeteries." (4)
DU
weapons are favored for the ease with which the projectiles slice
through thick metal and the devastation caused when they explode inside a
tank.
Each Libyan tank destroyed by NATO forces using depleted-uranium
weapons has become a radioactive hotspot in the Libyan desert with the
same power to kill as Fukushima radioactivity. The future of the nation
of Libya will be the same as that of Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq as a
result of DU usage.
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