27.06.2004., nedjelja
Bosnia contaminated
Last night (5. January 2004), in the crucial evening period, on the third channel of state television, RAI 3, I followed one retake of the report on the effects of NATO bombardment with DU on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H). In Italy, for several years already, public attention is occupied by the fight for truth, waged by the association of Italian soldiers and carabinieri who were the members of international military forces stationed in B&H.
Italians were primarily in the region of Sarajevo. In the first moment when the first cases of illness began to appear (mainly the cases of cancer, different types of leukemia, Hickinson's illness, brain cancer, lymphoma and (similar) among those soldiers and carabinieri, military authorities claimed that there was no proof that they were related to DU. Even those same people were threatened for causing disturbance of the public. However, supported by
the media, they succeeded slowly to break the wall of silence that surrounded them, and the truth began to come to light.
Pressed by the opinions of experts, the military authorities finally admitted that illness of these people can be directly related to their stay on the contaminated territory of B&H. In the beginning, they were occupied just by their own cases, but in the end they began to get interested also to the local population.
One crew of RAI journalists, with a few representatives of the soldiers' association (the names I was not able to catch but one could look at RAI site whether there is something about this report) and with parliamentarian Edouard Ballaman, traveled to B&H in order to document the story about DU and its effects. The thing that astonished me at one moment was the comment by a journalist, “Nella Bosnia molte cose vengono messe a tacere” (In Bosnia
many things are being hidden away), but knowing our mentality this was not after all so big a surprise.
There were many things in the RAI 3 retake that make every normal person worried. The report begins with the picture of an Italian airport where a crew of carabinieri is returning from from a routine task in B&H with a group of children accompanied by representatives of the Italian Red Cross.
Asked how many children he accompanies from B&H annually, the leader of this trip, Paolo Giampietro, answered, "Una cinquantina ma ogni anno sempre di piu" ([I]Around fifty, but each year ever more[/I]).
The report presented some children from Teocak and Cazin, one little girl (maybe 2-3 years) from Sarajevo with swollen tongue. They are being taken into a Red Cross headquarters near Viterbo (Carpante), from where they will
be taken for care and treatment in some specialized hospitals. I noted down the names of those kids in a hurry and what they suffered from:
Dalila - leukemia,
Sandra - also leukemia,
Samina - bone cancer.
One boy (I did not understand the name because Italians pronounce them in their own way) - brain cancer.
After the interviews with the children, all of whom claimed they began to feel bad after the war, followed the data that 10800 DU bombs were thrown on B&H, out of which 7400 -- in the vicinity of Sarajevo. DU (U238) is used in combat projectiles since it increases the penetrating power. It is used against armoured vehicles, bunkers. Piercing of the armour develops temperature of 3000 degrees Celsius. One earlier report about the same topic (a paper report by a woman named Milena Gabanelli, www.report.rai.it) cited the statement of one highly placed Pentagon officer that a few such wars (Iraq, B&H, Kosovo and Metohija, Somalia) could solve the US problem of
nuclear waste.
Marco Saba, from the Comitato Stop Uranio 238 organisation, stated "...E' stato utilizzato anche nei proiettili. Nella Guerra del Golfo, ad esempio, sono state bruciate piů di 300 tonnellate di questi proiettili di uranio. E un alto funzionario del Pentagono ha dichiarato che con dieci guerre cosě si eliminerebbero le scorie nucleari degli Stati
Uniti..." (DU is used in projectiles, In the Gulf War, it more than 300,000
kg of DU in these projectiles burned. One high official of Pentagon declared
that with 10 such wars, the US will have no more radioactive debris.).
Source http://www.report.rai.it/servizio.asp?s=67
Next, the RTI report presented the crew that landed at Sarajevo airport and went through the city. A carabinieri, who obviously served in Sarajevo, explained the situation and where NATO bombed. The RTI crew went to interview a woman doctor Bilalovic at the Sarajevo Faculty of Medicine, who confirmed that the number of cancer cases grew very much, especially among the younger population.
Next, a woman doctor, Jasmina Beric, the chief of the haematology department. (Unfortunately, I did not understand whether this was still at the Faculty or in some other Sarajevo hospital that sends the heaviest cases for treatment abroad.) At one moment, the translator spoke about 15 children come from Kazin, but this in fact is Cazin, because when explaining where the children came from, the program simultaneously showed the map of B&H.
The RTI 3 crew then went to Hadzici, explaining that between the 5th and 11th of September 1995, 3405 projectiles enriched with DU were thrown on that place, especially on a plant named REMONT. They interviewed the plant’s
director Mr. Zija, who explained that his plant used to repair tanks. Asked about what happened to the tanks destroyed in the attacks, Mr. Zija said that one of the tanks was transported to Italy (for recycling). After this
statement, the RTI 3 crew stood there like lightening-stricken, the parliamentarian too.
Prompted to confirm his statement, Mr. Ziju shut up because probably he understood that he had said something he should not have (commentary of the author, Zeljko Golac). At the plant they met a crew of Japanese TV, equipped for measuring radiation. The Japanese were obviously disturbed because they saw high values of radioactivity on their counters. At one moment the value passed over 120 microsievert per hour, which almost caused panic among the journalists.
Mr. Zijo and local representatives were dismayed, because they did not understand what it was all about. The Italian veteran explained to them that in only one day they received the dose allowable for the entire year. Mr.
Zijo remained speechless, especially because he claimed he was told that there was no danger. The author of this commentary notes that after the war 5000 Serbs left from Hadzici.
Then the delegation went to Belgrade where they interviewed orthopedist Professor Dr. Branko Strugar (I hope I noted down his last name correctly) who also confirmed the statement of his Sarajevo colleague about the
increase of neoplasmatic illnesses, citing even the percentage increase of 70%!!!
Serbian experience with the same problem can be added to the B&H story. At one moment Professor Strugar noticed that out of those 5000 inhabitants of Hadzici, almost 150 die annually. The majority of these people went to Bratunac and the crew went there, too. They interviewed some people from Hadzici who gathered at Cafe Piccadilli, and noted down their stories. The story sums up mainly to the fact that they did not know with what they were
bombarded and how very little it was spoken about in general. There are rumours, but... The RTI crew was taken to the local cemetery to see the fresh graves of some children. I also wrote down some names from these graves, but will not cite them.
The RTI report ends here. About this There will surely be still much talk here about it, since the associations that defend the rights of their soldiers do not easily give in, and the pressure on the government to give
clear and precise answers is constant.
However, obviously some dirty things are at play here as well, some things that the public still did not succeed to learn, since the transfer of responsibility from one official to another is in progress. Be as it may, the truth cannot be hidden anymore.
And how is it in B&H? How much is known about this? What are the authorities doing to help these people? Is there talk in the Parliament about this problem, or they think only how to increase their salaries because in this way they can best defend the honour of this institution? Or we will be silent not to disturb the Americans and the British too much. As if they saved B&H, and we are impudent and ungrateful by bothering them with the story about uranium with which violets are fertilized to grow better.
What does the high representative for Bosnia say about this? It must be the Mafia business, cosa nostra and other scoundrels. As much as I went through the B&H forums there is no talk about this. Probably this is not important
enough to bother our brains. Or maybe I missed something since I do not go into each forum-cafe. Or is it true what the commentator of the Italian TV said, " Nella Bosnia molte cose vengono messe a tacere." (In Bosnia, many
things are being hidden away.)
This entire story is based on the broadcast titled "Primo piano" (In the first plan) emitted on January 5th, 2004, on RAI 3 at 23:00. This is in fact a repeated report that was aired already on December 12 th, 2003.
You can see it here:
http://www.rainews24.rai.it/ran24/speciali/uranio_impoverito_2003/vittime.htm
You can see here viewers’ commentaries on the report:
http://www.rainews24.rai.it/ran24/speciali/uranio_impoverito_2003/commenti.htm
Links to related material on the Internet:
http://www.rainews24.rai.it/ran24/speciali/uranio_impoverito_2003/links.htm
This is in case somebody thinks of indicting me for disturbing the public. Another interesting contribution in connection with this story is the public indictment of the Italian general Fernando Termentini, whose units de-mined
regions in B&H (among other countries where they have been present). NATO and governments have been doing rather many nauseating things. This report can be found at
http://www.rainews24.rai.it/ran24/speciali/uranio_impoverito_2003/diario.htm , where the tape of the talk with the general Termentin was published as well.
Zeljko Golac
english translation:
Vera Vratusa Zunjic
http://www.veravratusa.org/
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