Wednesday, January 17, 2001

Uranium tests are planned Czechs join screening for depleted uranium By Brian Hannon In a strategist's fantasy, NATO sends planes aloft to rescue the Balkans from alleged Serbian tyranny. In a medical nightmare, the weapons they use leave behind potentially lethal contamination. NATO is living through the nightmare. Less than a decade after U.S. tank-destroying aircraft in NATO service first flew Balkan missions -- in Bosnia in 1995 and Kosovo four years later -- European nations, including the Czech Republic, are worried that depleted uranium (DU) contained in the munitions may be placing local citizens and peacekeeping troops at risk. So far, a Czech pilot has died. So have seven Italian and five Belgian soldiers, and two each from Portugal and Spain. Dozens of others are reported to be ailing, although there is no proven link between armor-piercing shells used by NATO and Balkan syndrome -- a term for the collection of illnesses veterans have reported. They include chronic fatigue, hair loss and leukemia. Starting next month, the Czech Army, following the lead of other NATO nations, will put members of its Balkan peacekeeping missions through medical checks to see if they suffer from similar ailments. "Links between war and the serious health problems of those who served in it must not be underestimated, as happened after the Gulf War," said Czech Army Lt. Col. Karel Klinovsky. The 1991-92 Persian Gulf War also produced a variety of syndromes and conditions possibly linked to military toxins -- 21,000 U.S. veterans are still suffering from unexplained illnesses. Washington and London -- the two key players in the two-month Kosovo conflict to end ethnic cleansing by the regime of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic -- insist no evidence exists to link DU to serious illness. Military units use depleted uranium to strengthen tank exteriors and in shells for its armor-piercing hardness. It can give off low-level radiation and Yugoslav military officials say they have measured radioactivity levels up to 1,000 times the norm in some bombed areas. In Kosovo, where air attacks lasted more than two months, U.S. aircraft fired 31,000 DU rounds. Michal Martinak, one of 10,000 Czech troops to serve in the Balkans, died of leukemia last year. He was diagnosed too late for effective treatment. Martinak's death remains under investigation -- officials say any DU link is inconclusive -- but the Czech Army has said it will offer compensation to his family if a connection is found. NATO spokesman Mark Laity said that because of DU's low radiation levels "the medical consensus is that the hazard is minimal." Lt. Col. Miroslav Sindelar of the Defense Ministry agreed: "There was doubt cast on the link between the illnesses and the use of the DU technology." The Czech envoy to NATO, Karel Kovanda, went further, saying there was no "statistically important or even casual" connection between DU and health risks. But alarm is spreading. Slovakia announced Jan. 11 it would begin checking its Balkan veterans, on the heels of a similar British announcement. The European Union has ordered its own probe, while NATO medical officials in Brussels were expected to issue a statement on the issue. Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato said officials have always believed DU exposure was dangerous only in "absolutely exceptional circumstances" -- when, for example, soldiers pick up bullet fragments and contaminate open wounds. "But now we are starting to have a justified fear that things are not that simple," he said. Both the United States, which said it has no DU-related illnesses in its ranks, and Britain rejected requests this month by NATO allies to halt use of DU shells. "There's absolutely no proof that there's a connection," U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said. General Joseph Ralston, supreme commander of NATO European forces, reportedly said much the same during a recent visit to Prague. Czech Ministry of Defense spokesman Milan Repka said Ralston "thinks there is no threat in the Balkan syndrome." U.S. physicists and medical experts have called a link between leukemia and the low amounts of radiation put off by DU an impossibility. While Repka said the Czechs proposed to Ralston that "all soldiers involved should undergo medical examination," Sindelar noted that future use of DU munitions by NATO forces is "subject to negotiations." "I cannot rule out that the Czech Republic would support the ban of such arms," Sindelar said. Debatable risk While far less dangerous than nuclear fuel, depleted uranium carries low levels of radiation that can spread when shells detonate. "The danger is in inhaling or swallowing the dust, which endangers the systems of the human body," said Milada Emmerova, a physician and Czech Social Democratic (CSSD) deputy. "However, it is difficult to predict the amount of damage done without knowledge of the level of radiation." Hari Sharma, an American professor, on Jan. 8 told Czech media that he sent a letter in 1999 warning President Vaclav Havel's office of the dangers of uranium-tipped munitions. Havel's office claimed it was unaware of the letter, while a Czech Military Academy radiobiology official reportedly dismissed Sharma's findings. The Defense Ministry's Sindelar said the government has taken steps to screen troops for illnesses contracted during service. Since 1997 the Czech Army has collected blood samples from departing soldiers for comparison upon their return from missions. Those samples will be used in February's medical tests on personnel returning from Kosovo. No special measures, however, have been taken to protect the replacement battalion heading to the Balkans this month. The Czech Army's Klinovsky told Czech media he was unaware of sickness among any of the paratroopers he commanded in Kosovo. But he stressed the importance of learning the cause of "the serious illnesses of NATO soldiers who served in Kosovo and who are now dying." Veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, where DU also was used, reported symptoms similar to Balkan syndrome. Pentagon officials, however, said extensive tests produced no evidence of a link between the munitions and "Gulf War Syndrome." A 1999 book published by two former members of a Czechoslovak military chemical-detection unit, who served in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War, charges that data revealing the detection of toxic gas was suppressed by U.S. General Norman Schwarzkopf. Chemical weapons have been suspected as a possible cause of Gulf War illnesses. Emmerova of CSSD, who conducted a study on Gulf War Syndrome, believes "there is still a lot of silence" surrounding the Gulf War events. "The complaints of Gulf War veterans have been put down," she said. "The British veterans were really upset about this and they returned their medals." Emmerova believes ailments suffered by troops who served in Bosnia and Kosovo will receive more scrutiny. "The advantage of the Balkans case is that the illness is clear and points directly to its possible sources," she said. "In general the cause of leukemia is still unknown, but this case has to be taken very seriously and it must be investigated." -- With Petr Kaspar and wire reports Brian Hannon's e-mail address is bhannon@praguepost.cz