To go point by point:
BRITISH and American coalition forces are using depleted uranium (DU) shells in the war against Iraq true and deliberately flouting a United Nations resolution which classifies the munitions as illegal weapons of mass destruction. uncertain, likely false
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. DU dust does this, not because its radioactive, but because the human body doesn't respond well to heavy metals
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'. opinion
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.' still haven't seen DU being referred to as a WMD by anyone but him
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. ummm, pretty much anytime a US tank fires a non-HEAT round you can guess it has some DU in the round, A-10 standard mix is 4 DU penetrators, 1 non-DU (I forget if its explosive or incidiery)
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. if your tank gets hit by a DU penetrator and it manages to breach the interior, DU explosure is not your biggest problem
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. blamed, not proven
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. again, no direct link, just conjecture
'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. yes, the russians who have a guess, rather than an inventory count, have a better estimate...
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 radioactivity is not high, its only really bad when ingested
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. maybe b/c saddam has unleashed chemical weapons in Iraq?
A study of Gulf war veterans showed that 67% had children with severe illnesses, missing eyes, blood infections, respiratory problems and fused fingers. I'd like to see that study
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. opinion
'To do so is a crime against humanity. opinion
'We must do what is right for the citizens of the world -- ban DU.' opinion
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'. opinion
He added: 'We can't just use munitions which leave a toxic wasteland behind them and kill indiscriminately. opinion
'It is equivalent to a war crime.' opinion
Rokke said that coalition troops were currently fighting in the Gulf without adequate respiratory protection against DU contamination. opinion
The Sunday Herald has previously revealed how the Ministry of Defence had test-fired some 6350 DU rounds into the Solway Firth over more than a decade, from 1989 to 1999.