ENVIRONMENT-SERBIA: Fatal Leftovers of NATO Air Raids Go West

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

KRAGUJEVAC, SERBIA, Feb 11 2002 (IPS) - Toxic waste, the remains of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NATO, air raids on the country are being transported to Germany and Switzerland for final destruction, environmentalists say.

They say the first transports are starting this week from the Zastava car factory in central Serbian town of Kragujevac, where an electricity power plant supplying the complex was hit by dozens of NATO rockets in April 1999.

Seven hundred neatly lined huge red barrels stand in what used to be the main car factory hall. They contain 150 tonnes of toxic waste with pyralene or PCB, man made organic substance used in transformer oils.

“We have decontaminated the area and put the toxic waste into these 700 barrels, due to leave Kragujevac this week,” says Branislav Nedeljkovic, Professor of Kragujevac University and a local environment expert.

“The whole project is financed by the United Nations (UN) and the waste will be taken to Germany and Switzerland for destruction or storage,” he adds.

More than 1,800 litres of PCB went into the ground when the power plant was hit. PCB is known to cause skin and liver cancer and male sterility. PCB poisoning can be passed from mother to child by breast feeding.

Several workers who were taking notes around the red barrels, putting stickers on them and writing down the numbers of those ready for transport expressed relief that the toxic elements were being removed from their home country.

“I’m not afraid to do this. After what happened during the air raids, this is nothing. Everything was burning for days in Kragujevac. Luckily for us, there is a place where this poison can go,” says Vukomir Bubanja (33).

Environment experts say that the situation in the country still remains serious, almost three years after NATO’s air campaign.

From March 24 to June 8, 1999, at least 23 petrochemical plants, oil refineries and fuel depots in Yugoslavia were bombed by NATO, as well as at least another 121 major industrial plants containing various chemicals and substances dangerous to human health, the statistics of Yugoslav Federal Environment Ministry show.

Thousands of tonnes of highly toxic chemicals were uncontrollably released into the air, soil and water in this densely populated country with an area of 102,173 square kms. The analyses of samples from those places show that traces of mercury, PCB Pyralene and asbestos remain in the environment until today.

Dr. Predrag Polic, chemistry professor at Belgrade University, describes the environment problems as “serious”.

“There was a 100 percent rise in pollution in Serbia at the time of NATO air raids,” Polic told IPS. “We could say that the country was extremely polluted and still there are serious spots of concern for us,” he added.

Polic belongs to the joint United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) Balkans Task Force (BTF), headed by Pekka Haavisto, former Finnish ecology minister. The team studied the environment in Serbia several times since July 1999 and put major efforts in restoring the ecological balance in Serbia.

According to the UNEP office in Belgrade and local experts, the next trouble spot to be tackled will be the town of Pancevo, 15 kms northeast of Belgrade. Its fertiliser plant, petrochemical complex and oil refinery were hit by NATO several times.

Large residues of ethylene – dichloride (a probable carcinogen, known to cause damage to kidneys and liver), chlorine, propylene, vinyl chloride monomer (VCM), mercury and ammonia remain near Pancevo, mostly in the Danube river and in the soil.

“We’re sitting on a chemical bomb here,” local environment inspector, Simon Bancov, told IPS over the phone. “We are sorry that UNEP is being slow, but we are aware that it is only due to foreign donations that something can be done.”

Another problem is the use by NATO of depleted uranium (DU) weapons, some 31,000 rounds as the Alliance admitted in its report to the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

So far, the decontamination was completed at the Adriatic peninsula of Lustica, but many spots still remain untouched.

“It will take years before we solve the problems of environment. But at least, the first steps were taken,” said Professor Polic.