Patricia Kelly: NATO nations worry U.S. ammunition tied to cancer deaths

Patricia Kelly

CNN Brussels Bureau Chief Patricia Kelly is the network's primary correspondent on European Union and NATO affairs.

Q: Some NATO countries say their troops are ailing after serving in Bosnia. What ailments have the soldiers suffered?

KELLY: Reports that we're getting in are that there have been a high spate of cancer-related deaths among the military in Italy, Portugal and Belgium.

Of 12,000 Belgian soldiers who served in Bosnia, 9,000 responded to a questionnaire that revealed 1,600 of them are suffering from illnesses that might be linked to their mission. Belgian Defense Minister Andre Flahaut says that a link cannot be established between the Bosnian mission and the development of certain cancers. But out of those 1,600, nine people became serious ill, and of those nine, four have died. He says the fact that they all participated in the Bosnian mission means they cannot ignore the possibilities of the link.

AUDIO CNN's Patricia Kelly discusses the investigation of radiation levels in Kosovo 408K/37 sec. AIFF or WAV sound     MESSAGE BOARD Peace in the Balkans     ALSO NATO arms illness claims denied

Similarly suspicious deaths have been reported among Balkan war veterans in Italy and Portugal.

Q: Does it appear that the involved NATO nations have absolute evidence of a link, or is there room for other possibilities?

KELLY: They are saying there is no certain evidence that the depleted uranium is responsible for the deaths among NATO military.

But both NATO and the European Union have been asked to investigate the suspected link between different cancers that have appeared and the depleted uranium. But there could be a variety of causes -- chemical factories were blown up in these military campaigns, and soldiers may have been exposed to chemicals during such explosions or afterwards.

NATO admits 10,800 depleted uranium shells were fired by its aircraft during the Bosnian war. A further 31,000 were fired by allied forces during the Kosovo war. So far, there are no reports of soldiers in Kosovo falling sick, but the scare is prompting them to test some soldiers currently serving in Kosovo. The Belgians have carried out 3,500 tests so far. They do urine analysis before the troops leave on mission, during the mission, and on their return. Since they started testing, none of the tests have revealed the presence of depleted uranium in the zone they are based.

The Belgian military -- 700 of them -- are based in the north of Kosovo, where there is no record of depleted uranium bombs being dropped.

According to information supplied by NATO, depleted uranium ammunition was dropped on 112 different sites. A United Nations Environmental Protection Agency team in Kosovo visited 11 of the sites identified by NATO. Their report is expected early this year, but they do say the radiation level is slightly higher than normal at some limited spots, and it would therefore be an unnecessary risk to the population to be in direct contact with remnants of depleted uranium ammunition.

Q: Has NATO determined whether the soldiers in question were on the delivery end of the ammunition, or on the receiving end of it?

KELLY: That's difficult to establish, because I don't have direct access to the information. But the Belgians are planning to publish their findings on the tests they've carried out on the Bosnian war veterans by the end of February. Depleted uranium is used in ammunition to penetrate armor or thick concrete. Soldiers may come into contact with fragments or dust after weapons have been fired, or if they are in the immediate vicinity of where the bombs have fallen, or if they are, afterwards, in the areas where bombs have fallen.

The concern is about both the military forces that handled the weapons, loaded the weapons, and fired the weapons, or those who went into the bombed areas afterwards.

But the authorities insist that it's by no means certain the depleted uranium is responsible for the illnesses and deaths.

Q: Were the soldiers of the nations in question involved in delivering the ammunition to the target?

KELLY: The weapons were mainly fired from U.S. planes, but because it was a NATO operation, there would be several nations involved. Some reports from Spain are suggesting there's no evidence of Spanish soldiers involved in the Balkan crisis having fallen sick. It is only Belgium, Portugal and Italy that are expressing concern, but they are being backed by other countries in their call for an investigation.

Q: What is NATO doing to protect soldiers who are in contact with this ammunition today?

KELLY: Obviously, all soldiers have to abide by national rules when dealing with any kind of ammunition, and as of yet there is no evidence that this ammunition is linked to a high incidence of cancer. But governments that are asking for the investigation say they must leave no stone unturned to identify the cause of the cancers. If a link is proven, the Belgian defense minister said, governments must then take what he described as a courageous decision to ban the use of depleted uranium in weapons, similar to the ban on anti-personnel mines that many countries have signed up to.

Q: Is there any evidence of increased cancer among civilians in the war zones?

KELLY: The United Nations Environmental Protection Agency came to the conclusion in October 1999 -- after examining the impact of the air strikes on the environment -- that part of the environmental contamination clearly predates the Kosovo conflict because there was little to no investment in environmental protection.

The U.N. says that the NATO air strikes, therefore, were not responsible for an environmental catastrophe in Kosovo. But we are only now hearing of illness and deaths among soldiers who served in Bosnia in the mid-90s, and it is probably too early for any kind of illness that might have been caused by the same circumstances in Kosovo to have started creating a pattern of appearance.

But NATO governments are expressing concern about the health of civilians in the Balkans who took the full brunt of NATO bombings, and the investigations are likely to examine the prevalence of cancer rates among civilians as well as the military. The aim of their assessment is intended to determine whether the use of depleted uranium during the Kosovo conflict has resulted in any current or future health or environmental risks, and to publish a scientific report on the findings in February or March.

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NATO
The Pentagon: The United States Department of Defense
European Union
Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Spanish Ministry of Defence (in Spanish)
German Federal Government
Dutch Ministry of Defence

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