POLITICS: EU Launches Inquiry into ‘Balkan Syndrome’

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Brian Kenety

BRUSSELS, Jan 9 2001 (IPS) - The European Union (EU) Tuesday said it had ordered a group of experts from its nuclear agency to study whether exposure to spent depleted uranium ammunition is behind a possible spate of leukaemia cases among military personnel who served in the Balkans.

Nearly two-dozen peacekeepers from Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal have died from leukaemia since returning from service in missions to Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, from what Belgium and others are calling the ‘Balkan Syndrome’.

Depleted uranium shells, nicknamed ‘tank-busters’, can cut through concrete and steel. After impact, the shell fragments continue to emit low levels of radiation.

The United States, along with Britain the only member of the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO) to use the shells, has said that it is “premature” to speak of any link between depleted uranium (DU) and blood cancer until an epidemiological study has been made to determine whether there is an unusually high incidence of leukaemia among the soldiers.

Following the Gulf War, the United States and Britain conducted tests on the health effects of DU weapons that “found nothing”, NATO chief spokesman Mark Latey said this week.

Spokespersons for the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, said Tuesday that Euratom, the European nuclear energy agency, was assembling an independent taskforce of experts who specialise in radiation issues to study the possible linkage.

That report is due in early February. The EU would also take into account information by “all available sources”, including its member states and international organisations such as the United Nations and the World Health Organisation.

The EU has also tasked the Euratom taskforce to determine whether spent DU shells pose any health risks for workers who may take part in EU- funded reconstruction programmes in the Balkans.

Rigorous analyses of depleted uranium (DU) samples, collected by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) during its Nov. 5-17, 2000 field assessment mission to Kosovo, are now underway in five European laboratories in an effort to determine whether the use of DU during the Balkans conflict may pose any risks to human health or the environment.

The UNEP field mission visited 11 of the 112 sites that were identified as being targeted by ordnance containing depleted uranium, including five in the Italian sector (MNB (W)) and six in the German sector (MNB (S)). The work was carried out in close co-operation with the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and the NATO Kosovo Force (KFOR), which assisted with logistics, accommodation, transport and security.

“Out of the 11 sites visited, the team found three sites with no signs of higher radioactivity, nor any remnants of DU ammunition. At eight sites, the team found either slightly higher amounts of Beta-radiation immediately at or around the holes left by DU ammunition, or pieces and remnants of ammunition, such as sabots and penetrators,” said Pekka Haavisto, chairman of the UNEP DU Assessment Team and former Environment Minister of Finland.

“For the UNEP team it was surprising to find remnants of DU ammunition just lying on the ground, one-and-a-half years after the conflict,” Haavisto noted. “Also, the ground directly beneath the DU ammunition was slightly contaminated. For this reason, we paid special attention to the risks that uranium toxicity might pose to the ground waters around the sites.”

The results of the tests will be ready in early March 2001, when UNEP will publish a full report of its findings.

Meanwhile, several of the EU member states have already begun testing their personnel who served in the Balkans and independent analysis of soil, water and air samples from the war-torn region.

Belgian Defence Minister Andre Flahaut last month asked Sweden, which assumed the rotating EU Presidency in January, to deal with the issue at EU level, whilst Italy, where 18 cases of ‘Balkan Syndrome’ have been reported, has called for NATO’s urgent attention to the issue. Sweden, which is not a NATO member, said it would propose an EU initiative Wednesday if there was backing from the 15 member states.

Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato said last week, “We’ve always known that depleted uranium was used in Kosovo – but not in Bosnia. We’ve always known it was a danger only in absolutely exceptional circumstances such as, for example, picking up a fragment with a hand on which there was an open wound, while in normal circumstances it isn’t dangerous at all. But now we’re starting to have a justified fear that things aren’t that simple”.

NATO has pledged to meet Italy’s request to provide information on the exact location of munitions used in Bosnia. However, NATO’s Political Committee, meeting here Tuesday for the first time since the issue caught the public eye, rejected Italy’s call for a moratorium on use of DU in weapons.