Ammo fear grips Europe

By STEPHEN CASTLE

BRUSSELS - The European Union yesterday promised to act over the escalating fears about Nato's use of depleted uranium in ammunition in the Balkans, as France said four soldiers who served in the region were being treated for leukaemia.

Amid mounting pressure on Nato to investigate the so-called "Balkan syndrome," Romano Prodi, the European Commission president, said ammunition using depleted uranium should be banned even if there was "minimal risk."

The subject is likely to be raised at next week's meeting of the North Atlantic Council. And Sweden said calls for a new EU medical working group on the subject would be discussed on Wednesday. Bjorn von Sydow, the Swedish Defence Minister, said: "It is important that we act."

In Paris, the French Defence Ministry said four soldiers who served in the Balkans during Nato's bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 were being treated in a military hospital for leukaemia. The French Defence Minister, Alain Richard, has asked for tests to determine whether the soldiers were exposed to anything during the conflict that might have caused the illness.

The New Zealand Defence Force says that although New Zealand troops served in Bosnia for 18 months, there have been no reports of sickness from the soldiers.

New Zealand Defence spokesman Wing Commander John Seward said as far as the Defence Force was aware there were no air attacks using depleted uranium rounds in the area where the Kiwi troops were posted.

Prodi intervened after mounting concern in Italy where there have been 30 cases of serious illness involving soldiers who served in missions in Bosnia and Kosovo, 12 of whom developed cancer. Six of the Italian servicemen are said to have died of leukaemia. In Belgium five soldiers have died in mysterious circumstances, in Holland two have died of leukaemia and there has been an outcry over the death of another soldier in Portugal.

Prodi said he wanted "the truth to be ascertained, not only concerning the soldiers, but also for the people who lived near them, the population."

"It is clear that if there is even a minimal risk, these arms must be abolished. And even if this risk was not there, I don't like the idea of using these particular weapons."

Prodi proposed "immediate contacts with the Governments of Bosnia and Serbia to discuss pollution and the problems linked to depleted uranium."

The EU may have some environmental or health and safety powers, particularly if some of the ammunition was manufactured in the EU.

Yesterday Greece announced that it would screen more than 1000 of its soldiers stationed in Kosovo for side-effects from exposure to depleted uranium ammunition and send experts to test areas where they were serving as peacekeepers. So far Spain, Portugal, Turkey and Finland have said they would screen their Kosovo veterans and Bulgaria is also to monitor the health of its small detachment in the province.

But Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said: "Based on our experience, we are pretty confident there are no direct links" between debris from extremely hard cannon shells fired by A-10 attack jets and cancer or other illnesses. He said there was no unusual indication of cancer or other illness among United States peacekeepers in the Balkans.

In London, the Ministry of Defence said no British soldier was known to have died in suspicious circumstances.

And Nato also insists that there is no evidence to show a link. Spokesman Mark Laity said: "The Italians have launched a public inquiry and Nato is assisting them. At this stage the overwhelming consensus of medical information is that the health risks associated with depleted uranium are very low."

The alliance has pledged to help answer a request from Italy, which asked for more information about the use of depleted uranium. Support is also growing for calls from Italy for a new mechanism to exchange scientific and medical information among the alliance countries.

- HERALD CORRESPONDENT, HERALD REPORTER