Gli americani non sanno che fine ha fatto l'uranio usato in Kosovo
[ The Independent ] Gli aerei americani in azione durante la guerra del
Kosovo hanno usato una tale quantita di proiettili di uranio impoverito che
adesso nessuno ha più idea di quante località siano state contaminate dalla
polvere radiottriva rilasciata dalle loro armi. Ufficiali inglesi e altri
ufficiali di artiglieria ai quali era stato ordinato di disinnescare bombe e
proiettili, sono stati fermati da funzionari americani che hanno parlato di
pericoli per la sicurezza. Inoltre, hanno detto, nessuna registrazione è
rimasta circa l'uso dell'uranio impoverito in Kosovo.
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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Europe/kosovo221199.shtml

The Independent
US "lost count of uranium shells fired in Kosovo" 
By Robert Fisk in Pristina 
22 November 1999
American aircraft used so much depleted uranium ammunition during the
Nato bombardment of Serbia that US officials are now claiming - to the
disbelief of European bomb disposal officers - that they have no idea
how many locations may be contaminated by the radioactive dust left
behind by their weapons.
British and other ordnance officers ordered to defuse live ammunition in
Kosovo have been fobbed off by the US military with "security"
objections - and then with statements that no record was kept of
depleted uranium (DU) munitions used in the Kosovo war.
A growing number of doctors and scientists suspect that an explosion of
cancers in southern Iraq is caused by the US use of depleted uranium
tank and aircraft munition warheads during the 1991 Gulf War. British
and American doctors have suggested that it may also be a cause of the
"Gulf War syndrome", which has caused the death of up to 400 veterans.
Despite these fears, Nato this summer refused to assist a UN team
investigating the use of depleted uranium munitions in Kosovo.
But information given to The Independent by European military sources in
Kosovo demonstrates just why Nato should be so reluctant to tell the
truth about the anti-armour ammunition - a waste product of the nuclear
industry which burns on impact and releases toxic and radioactive
material when it explodes. For it transpires that DU was used by A-10
"tankbuster" aircraft for more than a month in at least 40 locations in
Kosovo, many of them "fake" military targets set up by the Serbs to lure
pilots away from their tanks and artillery positions.
More tragically, A-10 aircraft used DU ammunition in two attacks against
Kosovo Albanian refugees, the first on 14 April on the main road between
Djakovica and Prizren. Hundreds of civilians were wounded in these
attacks, carried out when Nato pilots - flying at more than 15,000 feet
to avoid any injury to themselves - bombed refugee columns in the belief
that they were military convoys.
The British Ministry of Defence admits that "ingestion" of DU dust at
the time of the explosion "could present a health risk". But Nato has
made no attempt to trace the Albanian survivors of these attacks or
check their health.
Nor have K-For troops in southern Kosovo been informed that A-10
aircraft used DU-penetrator ammunition on targets around a road at
Gradis - west of Prizren - and on a bridge east of Djakovica. Italian
K-For troops now manning a checkpoint only a few feet from the craters
of a Nato DU bombing at Bistrazin have no idea that depleted uranium
dust was scattered over the ground around them seven months ago. Nato
sources in Kosovo say that DU was also used in the warheads of some
Cruise missiles fired at hardened silos and bunkers around main Serbian
towns and cities.
Yugoslav officials say they have no record of depleted uranium in Kosovo
because of their army's hurried withdrawal in June - but claim that DU
ammunition was used by Nato in areas around Vranje, Bujanovac, Ostojnik
mountain and on the Montenegran peninsula of Lustice.
"We've asked the Americans lots of time where they used this stuff," a
British ordnance officer told me.
"First - you know the Americans - they said they couldn't tell us for
'security reasons'. Then they said that their A-10s used DU and fired
the ammunition whenever they came across Serb armour. They said that
because these were 'targets of opportunity', they kept no record of the
location or dates of firing.
"I give three pieces of advice to my men if they think they are near DU
munition explosions: stay away, stay away and stay away."
The same officer said he had found the remains of only 13 Serb tanks in
Kosovo - precisely the same figure for destroyed tanks given by the
Serbs after the war and 83 tanks fewer than General Wesley Clark, the
supreme Nato commander, claimed his aircraft had destroyed.
But Nato pilots were fooled by wooden models of tanks and armour into
attacking hundreds of other locations.
In a rare interview in the Belgrade press this month, Colonel Dr Milan
Misovic, a specialist in radioactive protection in the Belgrade military
medical school, claimed that the consequences of DU use by Nato may be
small on the present generation but that "we'll have to check everything
for the next 100 years".