The Inter Press News Agency (IPS) reported that a multinational coalition made up of jurists and civil society groups will gather in London, UK between 24-25 May to examine the conduct of American, British and Iraqi troops during their latest conflict in Iraq. The meeting has been called to "establish the criteria for determining what constitutes war crimes, crimes against humanity and aggression".
Military personnel who served on the battlefield may face serious problems as a result of their use of depleted uranium (DU). DU is a form of low-grade uranium used in shells and rockets to make them harder and thus allowing them to pierce through tank armor and heavy concrete installations such as bunkers. Many scientists have linked DU to the Gulf War Syndrome, which is reported to have affected over 100,000 US troops and thousands of British, Canadian and French who served in the 1991 Gulf War. DU has also been noted as a possible cause of the rampant rise in infant mortality rates, deformed babies, cancer and early pregnancy abortion in Iraq between 1991-1997. An IAEA report published on 29 September 1999 (GC(43)/INF/20) cited heavy coalition bombardment as having played a part in this rise. The UN Commission on Atomic Radiation indicated in April 1999, that some 700-800 tons of DU was used in the 1992 Gulf War (see Christian Scherrer, Znet, 13 April 2003), an amount sufficient to cause 500,000 radiation cases which may lead to death (the Pentagon only admits to the use of 300 tons (IPS, 1 April)).
Scherrer estimates that 2,000 tons of DU weapons and ammunition have been used by US and UK forces in the latest war. The Pentagon and the Ministry of Defence in London admit to using such weaponry, typically by their M1A1 and M1A2 Abram tanks (US), Bradley fighting vehicles (US), A10 ground attack aircraft, bunker-buster missiles, and Challenger tanks (UK).
DU weapon use in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro in the early to mid-1990's served to raise European awareness of the detrimental health and environmental impact that such weapons have. US and British governments repeatedly deny the detrimental affects of DU, however, a report by the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) states that, "DU from weapons used in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1994 and 1995 has contaminated local supplies of drinking water, and can still be found in dust particles suspended in the air" (Environmental News Service, 26 March 2003).
Ian Willmore of the environmental NGO, Friends of the Earth, claims that about 50-90% of the particles released during the explosion of DU weaponry are of respirable size to which our bodies have no defensive mechanism (IPS, 1 April). In his opinion, there is "scientific consensus" that high exposure to DU causes damage to kidneys, neurological disorders and cancer of the lungs and bones.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) defines "depleted uranium" as uranium in which the percentage of the U235 isotope's weight is less than 0.711 percent, the remainder, 99+%, being U238. Military specifications mandated by the Department of Defense (DoD) require that the percentage of U235 be less than 0.3 percent, but in actual practice, DoD uses DU with a U235 content of approximately 0.2 percent. The specific activity of DU is about 0.4 µCi/g (micro curies per gram). The curie is equal to 37 billion (3.7 x 10+10) disintegrations per second. Therefore 1.48x10+4 disintegrations per second. The half-life of U238 is 4.5x10+9 years or 4,500,000,000 years, this is the time required for U238 to lose 1/2 of its' radioactivity.
The Department of Energy in the US has admitted that contaminated uranium reprocessed from military reactors had been mixed in with the "pure" DU. DOE has recently reported that the DU used by DOD in its armor plates (found only on "Heavy Armor" Abrams tank models) may contain trace levels of transuranics (neptunium, plutonium, and americium) and fission products (technetium-99). This contaminated uranium also contains traces of plutonium and U236, and probably neptunium and americium - elements thousands of times more carcinogenic than the uranium 238. The DU used in munitions may also contain these materials. But uranium 238 has other properties; it is pyrophoric, bursting into flames when it hits a tank at great speed. The fire oxidizes the uranium, converting it to tiny aerosolized particles that can be inhaled into the small air passages of the lung where it can remain for many years. U238 is also a heavy metal and causes a kidney disease called nephritis. Medical examinations show that Gulf War veterans are excreting uranium 238 in their urine and semen.
The general consensus of opinion for the induction of cancer by ionizing radiation is 10% increase in cancer rate per 100Rem when the dose is given over a short time, with a decrease to 5% when the dose is protracted over an extended time period. Therefore a 10% increase in cancer is related to a dose of 100,000 mRem with 5% if the dose is protracted over a longer period of time. Normal background radiation levels average 370 mrem/year. It is well established that radiation of unborn children during well-defined stages of fetal development, when the major organs are developing, results in an increase in birth defects. During the early stages of fetal development radiation exposure results in death of cells that are critical to normal development. Loss of these cell results in the death of the fetus. Thus, exposure during early fetal development does not result in defects but causes an increase in early spontaneous abortions. This is a defense mechanism that the body has to eliminate fetuses that are not developing normally. In the a-bomb survivors, the major defect in the children born after the bomb was a decrease in head size accompanied with mental retardation. These congenital birth defects all seem to have a threshold dose at about 10 rads below which there are no measurable effects.
US Forces Nations to Help Its Citizens Avoid International Court
The new international criminal court is the permanent war crimes tribunal supported by Britain and Europe but fiercely opposed by the current administration in Washington. The ICC has opposed unilateral action by the US and raised issues regarding prisoner detention, specific levels of force and the use of depleted Uranium. Recently Col. Powell said the US had not changed its policy of threatening signatories with economic reprisals if they did not pass laws excluding Americans from the court's jurisdiction. "We're not going to yield on our ICC policy," Mr Powell said. "We made it clear that we would not be any longer bound by any of the terms of the ICC, even though President [Bill] Clinton signed it just before he left office, knowing at the time he signed it it would never go to our Senate for ratification."