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Anastasia Balezdrova

The Greek Medical Association for the Protection of the Environment and Against Nuclear and Biochemical Threat alerted for the possibility munitions with depleted uranium to be used in the bombings of Libya. In its message the Greek branch of the organization International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War calls the U.S. government not to use such weapons. "After the accident in Fukushima, which loaded the planet with vast amounts of dangerous radioactive materials an additional surcharge from ammunitions with depleted uranium would be disastrous," warned the organization. GRReporter turned to the chairwoman of the Greek subsidiary Maria Arvaniti - Sotiropoulou.

Your message states that you have specific and credible information on the use of depleted uranium bombs in the attacks on Libya. What is its source?

It is the U.S. Pentagon. It is known what type of aircraft is used in the operations and we know that they carry weapons with depleted uranium. The same had happened during the war in Yugoslavia in 1998 - 1999.

What actions were taken by your organization then?

We have made our first press release then, which stated that we were aware of the involvement of the aircraft in the operations. Two days later, NATO stated that weapons with depleted uranium were used.

What are the effects of uranium on human health?
 
This kind of bombs were used in Iraq for the first time. The military industry began to use the uranium after it was discovered that its isotope U-238 or the so-called depleted uranium, which is found in large quantities in the waste of nuclear plants, is particularly heavy and can penetrate everywhere. It was originally used as counterweights in elevators, airplanes and other industrial applications just because it is so heavy.

The first doubts about this occurred in 1992 when a Boeing of the Israeli airline El Al fell in Amsterdam. Radiation was found then and at first it was thought that the plane carried nuclear materials. It turned out later that the radiation was the result of the uranium burning.
 
What is the amount of radiation?

The radiation released is not large in amount. It is as much as in making an X-ray. The depleted uranium radiation is mostly alpha and beta, and not gamma. The problem is that it is taken through breathing or through the food chain. It enters the body and stays inside because its half-decay period is 4.5 billion years. It lays in the kidneys and the bones and emits radiation throughout the life of a person.

This uranium was used in the first war against Iraq. Then the American war veterans were affected by what was called later the "Gulf syndrome". They got ill from leukemia and kidney cancer, and their children were born with anomalies. Then it became clear that local people suffered the same illnesses and that the soldiers were affected by the radiation emitted from the Iraqi tanks that burnt in the desert and that was produced from the bombs with highly flammable depleted uranium.

The ammunitions used in Yugoslavia in 1999 were of mixed composition. Nuclear waste was used to make these bombs, i.e. they contained other radioactive elements, not only depleted uranium. Much more serious damages were caused in Yugoslavia than in Iraq.

Are there medical reports on the effects on humans?

We wanted a research to be conducted from the outset. They refused to make a research in Iraq on the pretext that the events did not allow it. It seems that nothing has been done in former Yugoslavia too.

The issue of this type of ammunitionс was raised in the Parliament in 1998 at the initiative of our organization. An article in The Nation newspaper read that Greece was also supplied weapons with depleted uranium. The answer of the then-government through the Minister of Defence Akis Tsohadzopoulos was that such weapons were not and would not be intended to be deployed in the country. Several days later it became clear that there not only were such weapons, but they were used in naval exercises in the Aegean Sea. The weapons were supplied to Greece as a compensation for the purchase of several Boeings. We have been following the issue since then and we are sure that no ammunitions with depleted uranium have been purchased.

In 2001 the Marangopoulos Foundation for Human Rights filed a complaint at The Hague against NATO for the use of such ammunitions, because they cause serious damage to human health. Among them are syndromes similar to AIDS, the incidence of shingles, an unknown syndrome that resembles renal failure and leukemia, aplastic anemia, malignancies, congenital anomalies due to genital disorders and others. All these diseases occur in animals exposed to radiation from depleted uranium.

The complaint was not dismissed but it was not examined either. The foundation will resume it, because it has this right under the Statute of the International Tribunal. It is clear that it has no chances to be examined now, after being directed against NATO.

On the other hand, the UN voted and adopted two proposals for the use of ammunitions with depleted uranium in 2008 and 2009. This gives us reason to believe that there is a first ban on their use.