Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 12. Oktober 2004 / Time Line October 12, 2004
Version 3.510/12/2004
Nobel Winner: US Voters Hold Key to Ending Iraq War, Curbing
Global Warming
Agence France-Press, October 12. 2004
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041011/sc_afp/nobel_un_climate_us_iraq_041011193734
NAIROBI - American voters hold the key to ending the war in Iraq
and can help revive a UN treaty on global warming which was
rejected by President George W. Bush, Kenyan ecologist and Nobel
Peace Prize winner, Wangari Maathai, told reporters.
Nobel Peace prize winner Wangari Maathai addresses the media in
Nairobi October 9, 2004, during a press conference at the
headquarters of the Green Belt Movement. Kenyan environmentalist
Wangari Maathai became the first African woman to win the Nobel
Peace Prize, the first Nobel given to an environmentalist, honored
for fighting poverty by trying to save the continent's shrinking
forests. REUTERS/Radu Sigheti "There are very many Americans who
are not for the war (in Iraq) and who are wishing that this war
could come to an end," Maathai said at the United Nations offices
in Nairobi.
"In a country like America, there are lots of people who would
prefer that their government ratify the (Kyoto) protocol, who would
gladly change their consumptive lifestyle, especially the rate at
which they consume fossil fuel, so that they are not polluters of
the environment," Maathai, who is Kenya's deputy environment
minister, said.
10/12/2004
Hard Weapons for Soft Targets
Joanne Baker MSc, Child Victims of War
“We cannot under any circumstances acquiesce in the
non-utilisation of any weapons which are available to procure a
speedy termination of the disorder which prevails on the
frontier”. Winston Churchill
On March 28th 2003, a US A-10 aircraft fired into a convoy of five
British vehicles near Basrah in a ‘friendly fire’
incident. It was reported by the Guardian newspaper that the
British troops who retrieved the bodies wore “chemical
warfare suits…because of the threat from the depleted
uranium used in American weapons”.
Two days later, on the morning of March 30th 2003, an Iraqi troop
carrier passing through Kibla, a residential suburb of Basrah,
broke down and signalled to a second troop carrier to come to its
assistance. As the Iraqi soldiers were trying to sort out the
mechanical problem, an A-10 fired rounds of depleted uranium
ammunition into both vehicles causing instant inferno. At the same
time, two young men were entering a nearby house. Thinking they too
were soldiers, the pilot targeted the house. The soldiers were
incinerated, as were the two boys in the house, Jelaal and Nasir
aged 21 and 18. A young cousin sustained severe burns on his leg.
The explosive blasts created a plume of uranium oxide dust, some of
it so fine that is entered the atmosphere as a gas. The heavier
particles landed close to the vehicles and inside the building.
Neighbours and family buried the dead; the grieving parents and
remaining eight children continued to live in what was left of
their home, and dozens of local children played daily in and around
the burnt out vehicles. No one warned them of the nature of the
bullets that had and would continue to cause so much death and
destruction.
In July 2004, an Iraqi environmental scientist, who was researching
DU, happened to be driving through Kibla with his fiancé.
They were on the way to church to arrange their wedding. His
fiancé mentioned to him that she always got a headache after
passing some burnt out vehicles in the area, so a few days later,
he went to investigate. His Geiger counter immediately told him
that the area was radioactive and later, equipped with full
radioactive gear, he cleaned the troop carriers and damaged area of
the house to the best of his ability. He then went straight to the
British military in Basrah, explained the situation and asked for
their help. Apart from some sympathy from an environmental adviser,
who has subsequently returned to the UK, the response was very
dismissive and no action has been taken. The scientist also
notified the World Health Organisation but has had no response at
all.
A few weeks after this photographer Jenny Matthews, Dr Al-Ani and
myself happened to be in Basrah and were taken to visit the family
in Kibla. We walked around the burnt troop carriers and watched the
rising dial of the Geiger counter, as wind whipped up the dust
around us. Children were playing all around and were very excited
to see us. In the house we spoke to the mother and daughters, two
of whom, Ibtehal and Delaal, are suffering from breathing problems
and skin rashes, a younger boy, Kemal who is now thirteen, is
losing his night vision, and the burns sustained by their cousin
Sa’d are still not healing properly.
Our own enquiries through the British Embassy in Basrah resulted in
the following response, “The clean up of DU is the
responsibility of the civil administration, with assistance from
the international community, after any armed conflict.” In
this instance the civil administration is the Iraqi Interim
Government and, we wonder, which bit of the international
community? - Apparently not the US or UK. After the war of 1991, 24
US vehicles caught in DU friendly fire were returned to the United
States and it took three years to fully decontaminate them. The
clean up of the environment itself, is of course not possible.
Nature excels at recycling. Radioactive particles have already
entered Iraq’s air, water, soil and vegetation and are
working their way through the food chain. Nor do such particles
respect ‘borders’ – the wind, sun and rain will
move them endlessly.
During the Gulf War of 1991 the US and Britain used up to 350 tons
of DU shells in southern Iraq. They were used mainly on the tanks
and trucks returning from Kuwait. Despite the fact that they were
used mainly in a desert area, the health problems in Iraq, Kuwait
and Saudi Arabia have escalated. In Basrah childhood leukaemia has
increased 7 fold, overall cancers 10 fold and birth deformities 20
fold. Many allied troops returning from the Gulf and the Balkans
have suffered similarly. A German doctor, Dr Siegfried Horst
Guenther who studied the rare health effects in Iraq after 1991
also noted severe immunodeficiencies, AIDS-like syndromes, and
kidney and liver dysfunction. Other noted symptoms are reactive
airway disease, neurological problems, rashes, vision degradation
and night vision losses, gum tissue problems, sexual dysfunction
and neuro-psychological disorders.
DU is both radioactive and chemically toxic and many doctors and
scientists like Dr Guenther are convinced that the inhalation or
ingestion of microscopic DU particles does have an adverse effect
at a cellular level. Children, because of their fast cell growth,
are particularly vulnerable. Dr Alexandra Miller from the US Armed
Forces Radiological Research Institute concludes that "DU compounds
can transform cells into a state that appears to be able to induce
tumors, based on the changes in the physical appearance of the
cell, and based on the chemical changes induced in the cells by it,
and other tumor-favoring changes”. She also states that the
radioactive and toxic properties of DU seem to reinforce each
other, thus causing more extensive damage. Depleted uranium has
been found in the urine and tissue of sick veterans and civilians
many years after the initial exposure, and chromosome testing by Dr
Schott in Germany shows not only chromosomal damage to veterans
exposed to DU but the same genetic damage in their children. DU is
known to enter the sperm and the ovary and can cross the placenta.
This not only accounts for the high rise in congenital deformities
but indicates that such deformities could be intergenerational.
Young women like Ibtehal and Delaal must not only fear for their
own health, but that of any children they may bear.
To compound the health problem, some of the DU used in munitions
comes from the other end of the nuclear fuel cycle and is
contaminated with artificial isotopes such as U-236 and plutonium
and neptunium. As depleted uranium isotopes decay they become
increasingly radioactive. Moreover, according to Dr Dan Bishop, if
Neptunium 235 is present, its short half life will spike the
radioactivity and will triple “the alpha radiation over
natural uranium and double the total alpha, beta and gamma
radiation over natural radiation”. The environmental and
health effect of DU munitions could be far greater than is
generally assumed. Samples taken from civilians in Afghanistan by
the Uranium Medical Research Centre also showed excessive levels of
non depleted uranium and one tissue sample from Basrah has shown
the presence of enriched uranium.
The British have admitted to the use of 9 tons of uranium in the
2003 war – nine times more than in 1991, but the US refuse to
be specific. The estimates range between 200 to 2000 tons. While
the US and UK only admit to the use of DU in anti-tank penetrators,
there is growing evidence that it is being used in a variety of
other weapons. High levels of radioactivity have been found in
large bomb craters such as the Ma’moon telephone exchange in
Baghdad which was hit by several bunker busting bombs. The missiles
cut through six layers of steel before exploding below ground
level. This supports the contention that uranium is being used in
some guided missiles to enhance the penetration of hard structures
and to incinerate them. These large bombs could release significant
amounts of uranium oxide into the atmosphere.
The difference between the war of 2003 and previous conflicts is
that the use of uranium has been almost exclusively in urban,
residential areas. The UK and US military justify this by saying
that there are no known health effects from depleted uranium, yet
are they really convinced? In fact, the military and governments
have known the health risks of depleted uranium for decades. In
1991, a UKAEA report stated “ The DU will be spread around
the battlefield and target vehicles in varying sizes and quantities
from dust particles to full size penetrators…localised
contamination of vehicles and soil may exceed permissible limits
and these could be hazardous to both clean up teams and the local
population”. In 1995 the US Army environmental Policy
Institute wrote, “If DU enters the body, it has the potential
to generate significant medical consequences. The risks associated
with DU in the body are both chemical and radiological”. All
military personnel working with DU in the UK are classified
radiation workers and subject to constant monitoring. Hard target
testing, which took place in Eskmeals, Cumbria until 1995, was done
under very strict conditions and it still costs the British tax
payer £360 000 a year to maintain and protect the site. DU
rounds were fired at a hard target in a concrete bunker, known as
the VJ Butt and in July 2000, the Radioactive Waste Management
Advisory Committee (RWMAC) made the following report,
“…a well-defined protocol is in place for workers
required to enter the VJ Butt after test firing. Before they can do
so, allowance is made for a cooling period during which cooling
fans with three levels of air filtration are in operation. Members
of the butt entry party are required to wear full protective
clothing with pureflow hoods and carry personal air
samplers.”
All well and good, but how can the use of the same material be
justified, if it is targeting houses, buses and people in Iraq?
While there is acknowledged military advantage in using uranium
against hard targets, it is very difficult to understand why it is
also being used so liberally on ‘soft’ targets. In this
last war on Iraq, these have included military personnel, cars,
trucks, buses and houses. Even the Iraqi troop carriers hardly
merited extreme penetrative force. And where in places like Kibla
are the air filters and pureflow hoods to be found? When Abdul
Zahra Misbal Shindi buried his dead sons he was not, like the
British soldiers, provided with a chemical suit.
Kibla is not alone. The same Iraqi scientist has discovered 26
radioactive sites in just one area of Basrah. In parts of Baghdad
radiation has been monitored as 1 000 and 1,900 times greater than
normal background level and high recordings have been made in towns
such as Samawah and Negev.
Our mission to Iraq in August was not to measure radiation, but to
assess the needs of Iraqi children for our charity Child Victims of
War. Basrah Children’s Hospital is crying out for even the
most basic equipment to treat its ever growing numbers of young
leukaemia and cancer patients. Despairing doctors said that this
was not really a cancer ward where children were treated, just a
place where they came to die. Basrah is in desperate need of an
oncology centre. If even a few of the young children we met are
dying from the allied use of radiological weapons, then the lack of
medicine and pain relief created by the long years of sanctions and
now occupation, compounds a most terrible crime.
10/12/2004
The slaughter of Palestinian children must stop now!
The slaughter of children in the Occupied Palestinian Territories
(OPT) must stop now
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights gravely condemns the
killing of Palestinian children by the Israeli Occupation Forces
(IOF). The Center demands effective protection by the international
community to stop the killing and severe injury of children, which
cannot be justified by military necessity under any circumstances
whatsoever.
At approximately 11 am today, Tuesday 12 October 2004, the IOF shot
10-year-old Ghadeer Jaber Mkhemar, from Khan Younis. Witnesses said
IOF troops opened fire from Neve Dekalim settlement towards the
UNRWA Al Khalidyeh Primary School, which is located in Khan Younis
refugee camp. The schoolgirl sustained critical wounds in the chest
while she was inside her classroom[1].
Earlier on 22 September 2004, an 11-year-old girl, Raghda Al Assar
died from wounds she sustained on Tuesday 7 September, 2004, from a
live bullet in the head when she was in her classroom in Khan
Younis.
In Rafah, in the south of the Gaza strip, Israeli soldiers killed
13-year-old Iman Samir Darweesh Al Hams near a military post.
Fifteen bullets were extracted from her body. Eyewitnesses,
including Israeli soldiers from the unit that killed her, said the
unit's commander opened his automatic rifle at her at close range
after she had been identified as a child and therefore not a
threat[2]. Numerous other children have been injured inside their
classrooms in UNRWA schools in the Gaza Strip from IOF fire over
the past two years.
Since 28 September 2004, the IOF have killed 115 Palestinians in
the Gaza Strip, of whom 29 were children. Another 127 children have
been injured in the IOF offensive, called "Days of Penitence", in
north Gaza. Children have been killed by missiles, artillery and by
snipers as IOF evidently used indiscriminate and disproportionate
use of force in residential areas. This latest offensive so far
raises the toll of Palestinian children killed by the IOF in Gaza
since September 2000 to 516.
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights voices its grave concern and
strongest condemnation of the slaughter of Palestinian children in
the OPT. Children have been killed and injured at home, in schools
and in the streets. They are the main victims of home demolitions
and other violations committed by the IOF. Facts on the ground
refute the IOF's claim of military necessity. It is evident, as
mentioned in the Center's previous releases, that Israel has, for a
long time, been in full breach of its obligations towards
Palestinian children under international humanitarian law and the
Convention on the Rights of the Child. The IOF's conduct will only
be encouraged by the failure of the international community to
ensure respect for international law.
The Center therefore renews its call upon the international
community to effectively intervene and stop such violations,
including the violation of Palestinian children’s right to
life. The most recent events in the Gaza Strip reinforce the fact
that the absence of such intervention leads to more violations, and
to the loss of civilians’ and children’s lives. Al
Mezan also calls upon the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
to investigate Israel's violations of the provisions of the
Convention. Israel must uphold its obligations under international
law, and immediately stop the violation of Palestinian
children’s rights.
[1] Contrary to IOF claims, the girl was at her desk. She sat at
the second desk of the fourth row according to witnesses from the
school. The teacher who was in the class at the time suffered from
severe shock when the incident occurred.
[2] See
http://www.mezan.org/site_en/press_room/affidavit_iman.php
for more information on this case.
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