BRITISH and American coalition forces are using depleted uranium (DU) shells in the war against Iraq and deliberately flouting a United Nations resolution which classifies the munitions as illegal weapons of mass destruction.
US forces' use of depleted uranium weapons is 'illegal'
http://www.sundayherald.com/32522
By Neil Mackay, SUNDAY HERALD Investigations Editor
30 March 2003
BRITISH and American coalition forces are using depleted uranium (DU) shells in the war against Iraq and deliberately flouting a United Nations resolution which classifies the munitions as illegal weapons of mass destruction.
DU contaminates land, causes ill-health and cancers among the soldiers using the weapons, the armies they target and civilians, leading to birth defects in children.
Professor Doug Rokke, ex-director of the Pentagon's depleted uranium project -- a former professor of environmental science at Jacksonville University and onetime US army colonel who was tasked by the US department of defence with the post-first Gulf war depleted uranium desert clean-up -- said use of DU was a 'war crime'.
Rokke said: 'There is a moral point to be made here. This war was about Iraq possessing illegal weapons of mass destruction -- yet we are using weapons of mass destruction ourselves.' He added: 'Such double-standards are repellent.'
The latest use of DU in the current conflict came on Friday when an American A10 tankbuster plane fired a DU shell, killing one British soldier and injuring three others in a 'friendly fire' incident.
According to a August 2002 report by the UN subcommission, laws which are breached by the use of DU shells include: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the Charter of the United Nations; the Genocide Convention; the Convention Against Torture; the four Geneva Conventions of 1949; the Conventional Weapons Convention of 1980; and the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, which expressly forbid employing 'poison or poisoned weapons' and 'arms, projectiles or materials calculated to cause unnecessary suffering'. All of these laws are designed to spare civilians from unwarranted suffering in armed conflicts.
DU has been blamed for the effects of Gulf war syndrome -- typified by chronic muscle and joint pain, fatigue and memory loss -- among 200,000 US soldiers after the 1991 conflict.
It is also cited as the most likely cause of the 'increased number of birth deformities and cancer in Iraq' following the first Gulf war.
'Cancer appears to have increased between seven and 10 times and deformities between four and six times,' according to the UN subcommission.
The Pentagon has admitted that 320 metric tons of DU were left on the battlefield after the first Gulf war, although Russian military experts say 1000 metric tons is a more accurate figure.
In 1991, the Allies fired 944,000 DU rounds or some 2700 tons of DU tipped bombs. A UK Atomic Energy Authority report said that some 500,000 people would die before the end of this century, due to radioactive debris left in the desert.
The use of DU has also led to birth defects in the children of Allied veterans and is believed to be the cause of the 'worrying number of anophthalmos cases -- babies born without eyes' in Iraq. Only one in 50 million births should be anophthalmic, yet one Baghdad hospital had eight cases in just two years. Seven of the fathers had been exposed to American DU anti-tank rounds in 1991. There have also been cases of Iraqi babies born without the crowns of their skulls, a deformity also linked to DU shelling.
A study of Gulf war veterans showed that 67% had children with severe illnesses, missing eyes, blood infections, respiratory problems and fused fingers.
Rokke told the Sunday Herald: 'A nation's military personnel cannot wilfully contaminate any other nation, cause harm to persons and the environment and then ignore the consequences of their actions.
'To do so is a crime against humanity.
'We must do what is right for the citizens of the world -- ban DU.'
He called on the US and UK to 'recognise the immoral consequences of their actions and assume responsibility for medical care and thorough environmental remediation'.
_____________________________________________________
UK should face court for crimes in Iraq, say jurists
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1127371,00.html
Ewen MacAskill, diplomatic editor
Wednesday January 21, 2004
The Guardian
A panel of international lawyers and academics called on the International Criminal Court yesterday to investigate Britain for alleged war crimes in Iraq.
The eight-member panel, mainly British but including representatives from France, Canada and Ireland, cited the use by the British military of cluster bombs in civilian areas.
It also said Britain was complicit in the actions of the US military, including the killing of international journalists.
A copy of the findings was sent to the ICC, which is based in the Hague, and to the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith.
The panel, which includes Bill Bowring, professor of human rights and international law at London Metropolitan University, took evidence in London in November.
Although its final report has not been completed, the panel yesterday issued an executive summary.
In it the panel said it answered yes to the question "Is there sufficient cause and evidence for the International Criminal Court prosecutor to investigate members of the UK government for breaches of the ICC statute in relation to crimes against humanity and/or war crimes committed during the Iraq conflict and occupation 2003?"
Professor Bowring said the RAF had dropped cluster bombs around Baghdad and the British army had fired artillery shells with cluster munitions around Basra.
He said these bombs were not accurate weapons capable of pinpoint accuracy and had exploded over large areas.
He noted the US attacks which resulted in the death of journalists: on the offices of the Arab satellite network, al-Jazeera, in Baghdad and on the Palestine hotel in Baghdad, where journalists were staying.
Prof Bowring said the panel had also investigated the use of depleted uranium, damage to the civilian infrastructure, including electricity supplies, the conduct of the US-British occupation and the preservation of the cultural heritage of Iraq, but the results had been inconclusive.
The ICC, which came into being in 2002, was set up as a permanent court to deal with crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the ICC's chief prosecutor, was prominent in the trial of former members of the Argentinian junta.
Although, on balance, it seems unlikely that the ICC will investigate the allegations against the British government, an ICC spokeswoman yesterday refused to rule it in or out.
"We do not usually comment on issues that might fall under the jurisdiction of the court," she said.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence defended the use of cluster bombs. "The thing about cluster munitions is they are not classified as unlawful and provide us with a legitimate capability," he said.
"We reserve the right to use them against military objectives and if we did not we might have to use alternative military equipment, such as an artillery barrage that might cause more [civilian] damage."
The international panel, in addition to Prof Bowring, is made up of: William Schabas, professor of human rights law at the National University of Ireland; Christine Chinkin, professor of international law at the London School of Economics; Reni Provost, associate professor at the faculty of law of McGill University in Canada; Paul Tavernier, professor, University of Paris Sud; Nick Grief, professor of law, University of Bournemouth; Guy Goodwin-Gill, QC, senior research fellow, All Souls College, Oxford; and Upendra Baxi, professor of international law, Warwick University.
The panel is supported by Peacerights, a relatively new human rights group.
Phil Shiner, its spokesman, said: "International law does not recognise victor's justice and both sides to the Iraq war must be fully accountable.
"Many respected groups and lawyers have expressed serious concerns about the apparently unnecessary and unjustified civilian casualties, particularly because of the use of cluster bombs in urban areas."
____________________________________________________________
1,000-2,000 TONS DU
Spread Over Iraq's Cities
http://www.lawyersagainstthewar.org/iraqnews/duspread.html
From Leuren Moret
4-30-3
Here is the estimate of the tons of DU the US used in Iraq: 1000-2000 tons - more than three times the amount used in the first Gulf War...only this time it was primarily spread in Iraq's cities, not on the battlefield.
The uranium and its radioactive decay products will remain toxic for over 4 billion years...and will slowly destroy the genetic future of the Iraqi people.
But the death and destruction will not be contained within the borders of Iraq. Winds will spread it throughout the Middle East and beyond. The US has carried out its omnicidal plan now on Afghanistan and Iraq...what country is next?
Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Kuwait, the Gulf States, and Iran will breathe the invisible war too... and they will share the fate of the Iraqi people, the caretakers of the cradle of civilization.
Uranium Cancer Check For Returning UK Troops
By Paul Brown, The Guardian Weekly
Soldiers returning from the Gulf will be offered tests on the levels of depleted uranium in their bodies to check if they are in danger of kidney damage and lung cancer as a result of exposure, the Ministry of Defence said this week.The ministry was responding to a warning from the Royal Society, Britain's top scientific body, that soldiers and civilians might be exposed to toxic levels. It challenged assurances from the Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, that depleted uranium was not a risk. A ministry spokeswoman said that if soldiers followed instructions correctly and wore respirators in areas where depleted uranium might have been used they would not suffer dangerous exposure, but all would be offered urine tests. The overall results would be published. The ministry said it would also publish details of where and how much depleted uranium was used. Brian Spratt, chairman of the society's working group on depleted uranium, said: "It is highly unsatisfactory to deploy a large amount of a material that is weakly radioactive and chemically toxic without knowing how much soldiers and civilians have been exposed to it . . . It is vital that this monitoring takes place within a matter of months." Experts have calculated that between 1,000 and 2,000 tonnes of depleted uranium were used by the coalition in the Iraq campaign.
The Guardian Weekly 20-3-0501, page 4
http://www.sundayherald.com/32522 By Neil Mackay, SUNDAY HERALD Investigations Editor
30 March 2003
BRITISH and American coalition forces are using depleted uranium (DU) shells in the war against Iraq and deliberately flouting a United Nations resolution which classifies the munitions as illegal weapons of mass destruction.
DU contaminates land, causes ill-health and cancers among the soldiers using the weapons, the armies they target and civilians, leading to birth defects in children.
Professor Doug Rokke, ex-director of the Pentagon's depleted uranium project -- a former professor of environmental science at Jacksonville University and onetime US army colonel who was tasked by the US department of defence with the post-first Gulf war depleted uranium desert clean-up -- said use of DU was a 'war crime'.
Rokke said: 'There is a moral point to be made here. This war was about Iraq possessing illegal weapons of mass destruction -- yet we are using weapons of mass destruction ourselves.' He added: 'Such double-standards are repellent.'
The latest use of DU in the current conflict came on Friday when an American A10 tankbuster plane fired a DU shell, killing one British soldier and injuring three others in a 'friendly fire' incident.
According to a August 2002 report by the UN subcommission, laws which are breached by the use of DU shells include: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the Charter of the United Nations; the Genocide Convention; the Convention Against Torture; the four Geneva Conventions of 1949; the Conventional Weapons Convention of 1980; and the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, which expressly forbid employing 'poison or poisoned weapons' and 'arms, projectiles or materials calculated to cause unnecessary suffering'. All of these laws are designed to spare civilians from unwarranted suffering in armed conflicts.
DU has been blamed for the effects of Gulf war syndrome -- typified by chronic muscle and joint pain, fatigue and memory loss -- among 200,000 US soldiers after the 1991 conflict.
It is also cited as the most likely cause of the 'increased number of birth deformities and cancer in Iraq' following the first Gulf war.
'Cancer appears to have increased between seven and 10 times and deformities between four and six times,' according to the UN subcommission.
The Pentagon has admitted that 320 metric tons of DU were left on the battlefield after the first Gulf war, although Russian military experts say 1000 metric tons is a more accurate figure.
In 1991, the Allies fired 944,000 DU rounds or some 2700 tons of DU tipped bombs. A UK Atomic Energy Authority report said that some 500,000 people would die before the end of this century, due to radioactive debris left in the desert.
The use of DU has also led to birth defects in the children of Allied veterans and is believed to be the cause of the 'worrying number of anophthalmos cases -- babies born without eyes' in Iraq. Only one in 50 million births should be anophthalmic, yet one Baghdad hospital had eight cases in just two years. Seven of the fathers had been exposed to American DU anti-tank rounds in 1991. There have also been cases of Iraqi babies born without the crowns of their skulls, a deformity also linked to DU shelling.
A study of Gulf war veterans showed that 67% had children with severe illnesses, missing eyes, blood infections, respiratory problems and fused fingers.
Rokke told the Sunday Herald: 'A nation's military personnel cannot wilfully contaminate any other nation, cause harm to persons and the environment and then ignore the consequences of their actions.
'To do so is a crime against humanity.
'We must do what is right for the citizens of the world -- ban DU.'
He called on the US and UK to 'recognise the immoral consequences of their actions and assume responsibility for medical care and thorough environmental remediation'.
_____________________________________________________
UK should face court for crimes in Iraq, say jurists
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1127371,00.html Ewen MacAskill, diplomatic editor
Wednesday January 21, 2004
The Guardian
A panel of international lawyers and academics called on the International Criminal Court yesterday to investigate Britain for alleged war crimes in Iraq.
The eight-member panel, mainly British but including representatives from France, Canada and Ireland, cited the use by the British military of cluster bombs in civilian areas.
It also said Britain was complicit in the actions of the US military, including the killing of international journalists.
A copy of the findings was sent to the ICC, which is based in the Hague, and to the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith.
The panel, which includes Bill Bowring, professor of human rights and international law at London Metropolitan University, took evidence in London in November.
Although its final report has not been completed, the panel yesterday issued an executive summary.
In it the panel said it answered yes to the question "Is there sufficient cause and evidence for the International Criminal Court prosecutor to investigate members of the UK government for breaches of the ICC statute in relation to crimes against humanity and/or war crimes committed during the Iraq conflict and occupation 2003?"
Professor Bowring said the RAF had dropped cluster bombs around Baghdad and the British army had fired artillery shells with cluster munitions around Basra.
He said these bombs were not accurate weapons capable of pinpoint accuracy and had exploded over large areas.
He noted the US attacks which resulted in the death of journalists: on the offices of the Arab satellite network, al-Jazeera, in Baghdad and on the Palestine hotel in Baghdad, where journalists were staying.
Prof Bowring said the panel had also investigated the use of depleted uranium, damage to the civilian infrastructure, including electricity supplies, the conduct of the US-British occupation and the preservation of the cultural heritage of Iraq, but the results had been inconclusive.
The ICC, which came into being in 2002, was set up as a permanent court to deal with crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the ICC's chief prosecutor, was prominent in the trial of former members of the Argentinian junta.
Although, on balance, it seems unlikely that the ICC will investigate the allegations against the British government, an ICC spokeswoman yesterday refused to rule it in or out.
"We do not usually comment on issues that might fall under the jurisdiction of the court," she said.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence defended the use of cluster bombs. "The thing about cluster munitions is they are not classified as unlawful and provide us with a legitimate capability," he said.
"We reserve the right to use them against military objectives and if we did not we might have to use alternative military equipment, such as an artillery barrage that might cause more [civilian] damage."
The international panel, in addition to Prof Bowring, is made up of: William Schabas, professor of human rights law at the National University of Ireland; Christine Chinkin, professor of international law at the London School of Economics; Reni Provost, associate professor at the faculty of law of McGill University in Canada; Paul Tavernier, professor, University of Paris Sud; Nick Grief, professor of law, University of Bournemouth; Guy Goodwin-Gill, QC, senior research fellow, All Souls College, Oxford; and Upendra Baxi, professor of international law, Warwick University.
The panel is supported by Peacerights, a relatively new human rights group.
Phil Shiner, its spokesman, said: "International law does not recognise victor's justice and both sides to the Iraq war must be fully accountable.
"Many respected groups and lawyers have expressed serious concerns about the apparently unnecessary and unjustified civilian casualties, particularly because of the use of cluster bombs in urban areas."
____________________________________________________________
1,000-2,000 TONS DU
Spread Over Iraq's Cities
http://www.lawyersagainstthewar.org/iraqnews/duspread.html From Leuren Moret
4-30-3
Here is the estimate of the tons of DU the US used in Iraq: 1000-2000 tons - more than three times the amount used in the first Gulf War...only this time it was primarily spread in Iraq's cities, not on the battlefield.
The uranium and its radioactive decay products will remain toxic for over 4 billion years...and will slowly destroy the genetic future of the Iraqi people.
But the death and destruction will not be contained within the borders of Iraq. Winds will spread it throughout the Middle East and beyond. The US has carried out its omnicidal plan now on Afghanistan and Iraq...what country is next?
Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Kuwait, the Gulf States, and Iran will breathe the invisible war too... and they will share the fate of the Iraqi people, the caretakers of the cradle of civilization.
Uranium Cancer Check For Returning UK Troops
By Paul Brown, The Guardian Weekly
Soldiers returning from the Gulf will be offered tests on the levels of depleted uranium in their bodies to check if they are in danger of kidney damage and lung cancer as a result of exposure, the Ministry of Defence said this week.The ministry was responding to a warning from the Royal Society, Britain's top scientific body, that soldiers and civilians might be exposed to toxic levels. It challenged assurances from the Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, that depleted uranium was not a risk. A ministry spokeswoman said that if soldiers followed instructions correctly and wore respirators in areas where depleted uranium might have been used they would not suffer dangerous exposure, but all would be offered urine tests. The overall results would be published. The ministry said it would also publish details of where and how much depleted uranium was used. Brian Spratt, chairman of the society's working group on depleted uranium, said: "It is highly unsatisfactory to deploy a large amount of a material that is weakly radioactive and chemically toxic without knowing how much soldiers and civilians have been exposed to it . . . It is vital that this monitoring takes place within a matter of months." Experts have calculated that between 1,000 and 2,000 tonnes of depleted uranium were used by the coalition in the Iraq campaign.
The Guardian Weekly 20-3-0501, page 4
