AFP: 10 years on, Iraq feels vindicated by Balkans Syndrome

10 years on, Iraq feels vindicated by Balkans Syndrome

BAGHDAD, Jan 11 (AFP) -

On the eve of the 10th anniversary of the Gulf War, Iraq feels its
long-ignored protests over America's use of depleted uranium (DU) weapons
may finally be given a hearing thanks to the Yugoslav conflict.

In the dock itself over weapons of mass destruction and with its
credibility in tatters ever since the war over Kuwait, Baghdad has turned
the tables by demanding Washington and London both face a war crimes
tribunal.

Amid the clamour in Europe over a rash of cancer deaths among soldiers who
served in the Balkans, NATO on Wednesday bowed to demands for an
investigation into the health effects of DU munitions.

NATO chief George Robertson said the calls for a probe into the US use of
DU in Bosnia in 1995 and Kosovo in 1999 were "legitimate demands", but
added he was "confident that there is little risk in NATO ammunitions."

DU munitions are able to penetrate heavy armour, and experts say, the
danger comes not from the low-level radiation they emit, but from
pulverised dust created on impact.

Iraq has long argued that US and British use of DU weapons a decade ago
caused "irreparable damage" to its people and environment, pointing to
previously unknown congenital deformities among Iraqi infants.

Dr. Sami al-Araji, a scientist on a government panel studying the war's
aftermath, has said radioactivity levels in bombed areas of southern Iraq
were 10 times higher than the rest of the country.

Contamination from at least 300 tonnes of DU weapons fired at or dropped on
Iraq, mostly by the US military, has entered the food and water chains,
causing "indiscriminate harm to non-combatants," according to Iraqi
doctors.

Ahead of a international conference on DU munitions which was hosted by
Baghdad in December 1998, Britain rejected as "baseless" Iraqi charges that
contamination from DU shells had polluted Iraq.

UN cancer statistics for 1989-1994 in southern areas like Missan and
Thi-Qar show up to seven-fold increases in cancer over the five-year
period. In Thi-Qar, cases rose from 72 in 1989 to 489 in 1994.

"Iraq requests the creation of an international tribunal to put US and
British officials on trial for crimes against humanity and the genocide
carried out by the Americans and British in Iraq and Yugoslavia," the
foreign ministry said Wednesday.

Baghdad, which itself has been condemned for using chemical weapons during
a 1980-1988 war against Iran, has called for compensation.

With the Balkans Syndrome, Europe is now paying the price for having
ignored the Gulf War Syndrome, Iraq's ruling Baath party's newspaper,
Ath-Thawra, said earlier this week.

"It's the turn of the Europeans to pay the price for their
follow-the-leader attitude towards the American bull," it said.

Ath-Thawra said the symptoms in Europe were "no more serious than the
damage inflicted by the Americans and the British on the Iraqi people"
during the war of January-February 1991.