Open Letter on the Use of Depleted Uranium in Iraq
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According to a press release from April 6, 2003, the United Nations Environment Programme (www.unep.org) is recommending that a scientific assessment of sites targeted with weapons containing depleted uranium (DU) be conducted in Iraq as soon as conditions permit. UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer said that "Given the overall environmental concerns during the conflict, and the fact that the environment of Iraq was already a cause for serious concern prior to the current war, UNEP believes early field studies should be carried out. This is especially important to protect human health in a post-conflict situation." Dr. Michael Kilpatrick, a top Pentagon health official, sees no reason for this: "The bottom line is, there's going to be no impact on the health of people in the environment or people who were there at the time," he said at a Pentagon press event. |
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IPPNW
Mr. George W. Bush
President of the United States of America
The White House
Mr. Tony Blair
10 Downing Street
April 4th 2003
Re: Use of depleted uranium weapons in Iraq
Dear Mr. President, Dear Prime Minister,
The German affiliate of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) demands an immediate end to the use of weapons containing depleted uranium (DU) in the war on Iraq. In the last few days, reports from the battlefield indicate that these have indeed been used. We believe that weapons containing depleted uranium should be banned.The mass of circumstantial evidence on the detrimental effects of the use of depleted uranium on health and the environment is sufficient for a ban to be necessary.
Colonel James Naughton of the US Army Materiel Command stated in a DOD press briefing on March 14th 2003 that the USA has no compunction about the use of DU weapons. He implied that the US military will use DU weapons in the war on Iraq: "...We don't want to fight even. Nobody goes into a war and wants to be even with the enemy. We want to be ahead, and DU gives us that advantage. We can hit, and they can't hit us. During the Gulf War we had tanks engaged in situations with multiple Iraqi tanks that were shot, hit—not penetrated—and proceeded to destroy all three of the targets that engaged them, including shooting through a sandbag and destroying one of the Iraqi tanks. It really happened. That's how much advantage it gives us. So we don't want to give that up, and that's why we use it."
According to a report by the Iranian News Agency IRNA on March 24th 2003, DU weapons were used by US and British forces in an attack on Iraqi tanks on Basra. A report on NBC TV on March 23rd quoted a US soldier in Kuwait saying the DU weapons were uploaded and ready to go. The British newpaper The Guardian reported on March 31st that the British tank that was attacked by a US A-10 the Sunday before was destroyed by weapons containing DU. An eyewitness account stated that the dead body of the soldier in the tank was recovered by men wearing clothing to protect them from DU. On being asked by a correspondent in Qatar from the German TV station ZDF whether the US or Britain were using DU in Iraq, military representatives refused to confirm or deny.
After firing more than 300 tons of DU munitions in the 1991 Gulf War, Iraqi doctors have recorded a marked increase in cancer rates, particularly in South Iraq. Children were observed playing with the remains of tanks that had been destroyed by DU weapons as well as the remains of the shells. IPPNW has received comprehensive documentation from Iraqi doctors that show a significant increase in both cancers in children and congenital malformations. Whether the use of depleted uranium is the cause of these increases, or has contibuted to them, has not yet been substantiated, nor has it been definitively ruled out.
For this reason, IPPNW demands that the US and British governments take responsibility for the burden of proof that depleted uranium causes no damage to the health of civilians or the environment.
In 1995, the US Army Institute for Environmental Policy warned that depleted uranium can have a significant medical effect on health when inhaled or ingested. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that areas contaminated by DU be cleaned up. The most recent report of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) states that DU has been found in the drinking water 8 to 9 years after it was used in Bosnia-Hercegovina. Klaus Töpfer, Executive Director of UNEP, recommended that the water therefore be monitored over several years and that in the meantime other sources of water should be used.
All the above indications amount, when added up, to a significant body of circumstantial evidence that there is real cause for concern. And since we are not convinced of the lack of danger to civilians caused by the use of DU we demand that these weapons be withdrawn from the arsenal and no longer be used, produced or sold.
Yours sincerely,
Xanthe Hall
Programme Director IPPNW Germany
