NATO aircraft are routinely equipped with anti-armor missiles fitted with depleted uranium war heads. It has been widely reported that NATO has fired hundreds of anti-armor missiles in many parts of Libya, including in the immediate environs of the Libyan capital Tripoli. This means that thousands of kilos of depleted uranium have been used in Libya in the past weeks.
Depleted uranium, or D.U., ignites when it strikes armored vehicles. Ignition causes D.U. to break down to a microscopic powder, measured in microns or millionths of an inch. Upon impact D.U. creates a fireball in many cases that rises hundreds of feet into the atmosphere where the wind helps spread it over large areas.
D.U. is a very dangerous, long term poison. It is radioactive and when ingested internally causes a host of problems to its victim. It is nonspecific and generational in impact, meaning that it does not distinguish between friend or foe and the damage it does goes on for generations into the future.
Large quantities of D.U. were used during the attack on Iraq in 1991 and the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The damage done by D.U. to the Iraqi population is well documented and continuing.
The use of D.U. constitutes a war crime and crime against humanity, just as poison gas and dumdum bullets were designated in their time. The Libyan people are the latest victims of this western inflicted plague.
Irradiate the Libyan people to save the Libyan people? How else could you describe the NATO attack on Libya?
Why you didn’t say about Bobming in Serbia?????
THE BOMBINGS OF SERBIA (1999)
From the onset of NATO aggression against our country up to 19 April 1999, the North Atlantic Alliance made over 7,000 criminal attacks against the territory of the Federal Republic of Yugo…slavia. 700 warplanes, of which 530 combat planes, were used; more than 2000 cruise missiles were launched and over 6,000 tons of explosives were dropped.
About 500 civilians were killed and more than 4,000 sustained serious injuries.
Three million children are endangered in our country as a result of war and bombardment by NATO.
After these barbarian attacks hundreds of thousands citizens have been exposed to poisonous gasses which can have a lasting consequences on the health of the entire population and the environment.
After the demolition of the Petrovaradin bridge, Novi Sad and Petrovaradin were cut of water supply (600 000 citizens) since the main and city pipeline was constructed into the bridge. About one million citizens in our country are short of water supply due to the bombardment of NATO.
About 500 000 workers became jobless due to the total destruction of industrial facilities all around the country. Two million citizens have no means for living and cannot ensure the minimum for existence.
Overall material damage is enormous. Preliminary estimates indicate that barbaric air strikes of the NATO alliance, since the beginning of the unprovoked aggression on the SR of Yugoslavia, on industrial, commercial and civil facilities and structures, have incurred damages in excess of 10 billion dollars. In the territory of the northern province of Vojvodine alone, damages have been estimated in excess of 3,5 billion dollars.
By Ljubica Vujadinovic
Belgrade: A leading Serbian expert in the field says NATO’s use of depleted uranium ammunition in it’s aggression against Serbia has caused an enormous increase in cancer rates and the number of newborns with genetic malformations.
Silent killer
“Depleted uranium is not only radioactive, it is very toxic as well,” says doctor Radomir Kovacevic, an expert of the Institute for radiology protection at the Dr. Dragomir Karajovic institute in Belgrade.
In an interview for the VJ Movement, he explains “Primarily it is nephrotoxic, so it affects the kidneys, then the liver and spleen. Actually, the whole organism is affected from the aspect of toxicity, it is poisoned.”
Four studies conducted so far, on both civilians and those who worked on the spots’ decontamination, have shown that DU exposure causes typical and specific changes in genetic material.
”The DNA molecule is very sensitive to aggression – in this case it is radioactivity. Experimental oncology has shown 18 years ago that in the etiopathogenesis of malignity precedes one genotoxic stadium and that is exactly what is visible on those chromosomes,” said Dr. Kovacevic, stating that the information obtained so far is enough to link DU contamination to an increase in cancer rates.
Threat to newborn lives
In the Vranje area, which is surrounded by four known DU contaminated locations, there has been an enormous increase in cancer rates and the number of newborns with genetic malformations.
“In 1998, 21 children were born with deformities. In 2008 there were 73,” says Nela Cvetkovic, a Member of the Vranje City Council, in a statement for VJM. The number of of the newborn didn’t change, it is about 800-1000 babies per year.
At the same time, in a six year period after the NATO bombing the number of newly registered cancer cases has more than doubled – from 185 in the year 2000 to 398 new diagnoses in 2006.
Permanent consequences
“The half-life of uranium 238 is very long – 4.5 billion years,” reminds nuclear physicist Miroslav Simic, stating that “this way of throwing away nuclear waste on civilian, but also military targets, is not human as the consequences are permanent.”
Traces of uranium 236 and some plutonium isotopes found at bombed locations suggest that at least a part of the material in the projectiles had originated from reprocessing nuclear fuel.
“Plutonium is one million times more toxic than uranium,” says Mr Simic in an interview for VJM, and explained that “one particle of plutonium which enters a human body is enough to cause fatal consequences”.
At the same time in Kosovo, doctor Nebojsa Srbljak, who researches the health consequences of the bombing on the civilian population, accuses NATO of using so-called dirty bombs.
“We first started researching when we found traces of Iodine 131 in the tissue extracted from one patient,” he says, adding that Iodine 131, also known as radio iodine, is well known as a major factor in health consequences of the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl.
Price for Kosovo independence
In Kosovo, none of the more than a hundred known DU contaminated locations has been cleaned. Foreign personnel have been warned to stay clear of those areas unless equipped with full radiological protective clothing. But no one warned civilians.
“We, the doctors, know what it is, politicians are silent to please their mentors. But the people are in the worst position as there are new cancer cases among young persons every day,” says doctor Srbljak, adding that the data on health statistics of the Albanian population is completely unavailable. The Albanian people, or at least their leaders, seem to be willing to pay the DU price for Kosovo independence.
Thank you for sharing this. This type of information is not easily accesible to the public. I greatly appreciate being made aware of this. I did not see any of this reported at the time.
THE WEST IS TRAPPED IN ITS OWEN PROPAGANDA.
This article is silly with it’s lack of references and claims that depleted uranium explodes upon impact.
This comment is silly with its claim that the article “claims that depleted uranium explodes upon impact”. The article rightly notes that it aeresolizes upon impact.
I wrote my Prime Minister about this at the beginning of the bombing of Libya, asking her to please stop the bombing of Libya. My government responded by sending aid to the rebels. Today, Australia is sad about the death of three Australians in Afghanistan. I am sad too, that three young lives were wasted. But I am also sad that over a million people in Afghanistan and Iraq have been bombed and killed, and 100,000 in Libya. We never get to see the casualties of civillians in these war zones, or that they have no water, electricity, sewerage, or even homes.