Group's plan, the Kosovars came to The threat of Gulf War syndrome Rambouillet in search of international NATO's radioactive shells recognition. But what the West wanted was to force the Kosovars to reduce their demand from independence to some kind of autonomy within Serbia.
It seems, though, that the presence of UCK representatives solidified the Kosovar delegation on a common programme of intransigence. After a first round of negotiations with the Contact Group, the Kosovar delegation refused to sign, and returned to Kosovo "to consult with the population."
This placed the European and US governments in a very embarrassing situation. They had threatened Milosevic with NATO air strikes if he did not sign. But no-one had expected that the Kosovo Albanians would dare resist the "International Community." This was the absolute worst-case scenario. Milosevic was the designated enemy, but the Albanians wouldn't "behave." ... and afterwards
Kosovo leader Adem Demaci (who spend 20 years in Tito's prisons) did not come to Rambouillet. He called it a "trap"-because the negotiations specifically excluded the possibility of independence.
The Western powers, particularly the US, put huge pressure on the Kosovars. Even the Albanian writer Ismail Kadaré was recruited to condemn the Kosovo press for "launching a real anti-western campaign before and during the negotiations, particularly attacking the USA and NATO."
Kadaré explicitly denounced those Rambouillet delegates "who demanded NATO help to punish Serbian barbarity but, at the same time, in an immoral and shameful way, began to oppose the Atlantic Alliance." For Kadaré, the most important thing was for Albanians in Kosovo to win western respect as a people worthy of "European civilisation" , as defined and defended by NATO
Leaving the ideology aside, Kadare
Depleted uranium shells pose a long term threat to the people and environment of the entire Balkans. The A-10 "Warthog" jets in action over Kosovo and Yugoslavia were the anti-tank weapon of choice in the 1991 war against Iraq. The Warthog carries a GAU-8/A Avenger 30 millimetre seven-barrel cannon capable of firing 4,200 rounds per minute. During the gulf war it fired 30mm rounds reinforced with depleted uranium, a radioactive
There is solid scientific evidence that the depleted uranium residue left in Iraq is responsible for a large increase in stillbirths, children born with defects, and childhood leukemia and other cancers in the area of southern Iraq near Basra, where most of these shells were fired.
Many U.S. veterans groups also say that DU resides contributed to the condition called "Gulf War Syndrome" that has affected close to 100,000 service people in the U.S. and Britain with chronic sickness.
John Catalinotto, a spokesperson from the Depleted Uranium Education Project of the US International Action Centre, a group that campaigns against the use of depleteduranium weapon, and an editor of the 1997 book Metal of Dishonour: Depleted Uranium, said the use of DU weapons in Yugoslavia "adds a new dimension to the crime NATO is perpetrating against the Yugoslav people-including the Kosovars."
Depleted Uranium is a waste product of the uranium enrichment process used for making atomic bombs and nuclear fuel. Because it is extremely dense—1.7 times as dense as lead, "DU is used in alloy shells to make them penetrate targets better," explains Catalinotto.
As the shell hits its target, it burns and releases uranium oxide into the air. The poisonous and radioactive uranium is most dangerous when inhaled into the body, where it will release radiation during the life of the person who inhaled it," said
Sara Flounders, a contributing author of Metal of Dishonour: Depleted Uranium and the Co-Director of the International Action Centre, said, "Warthogs fired roughly 940,000 rounds of DU shells during the Gulf War. More than 600,000 pounds (273,000 kg) of radioactive waste was left in the Gulf Region
"DU weapons in smaller number were already used by NATO troops during the bombing of Serbian areas of Bosnia in 1995.
"The use of Warthogs with DU shells threatens to make a nuclear wasteland of Kosovo, " Flounders said. "The pentagon is laying waste to the very people they claim to be Source: International Action Centre, 39 West 14th Street, #206, New York, NY 10011, USA. Tel +1-212-633-6646 fax: 633-2889 E-mail: <iacenter@iacenter.org> web site: www.iacenter.org Metal of Dishonour: Depleted Uranium has also been published in Arabic and Japanese. A second English edition will be published soon.
International Viewpoint #311 May 1999 5
* Kosovo
NATO bombs will make the Serbian NATO will have to introduce ground population even more loyal to Milosevic. troops, or admit stalemate. Opposition leader Vuk Draskovic and But no NATO government is yet ultranationalist Vojislav Seselj have ready to risk the death of its own "boys" already rallied to Milosevic in the name They are striking Serbia in the name of of national unity. Kosovo, but refuse to recognise the
And most of the population sees Kosovars' right to self-determination. Milosovic's Socialist Party, and his wife "concern" for Mira Markovic's Yugoslav Left, as more contrasts sharply with their indifference likely to solve their terrible social to the plight of the Kurds, butchered and problems than the more pro-capitalist repressed by NATO member Turkey, opposition parties. "National self- using the latest technology from its defence" has been invoked to justify a democratic partners Britain, France, new wave of media censorship. Germany and the USA
As NATO enters its 51st year of Tension in Montenegro operations, it is forging a new role of
The only dissident voice in Yugoslav repression and intervention. Britain's politics comes from Montenegrin Tony Blair has already authorised more president Milo Djukanovic. His clique of former Communist aparatchiks is seeking
British air strikes than all British postwar leaders together. France's SocialistCommunist-Green government is the first French government to authorise a There is a third way
Europe's social democratic leaders know what kind of NATO they want. The best way to stop them getting what they want is to build a peace movement calling for an end to Serbian aggression against the Kosovars, an end to NATO bombs, and recognition of the Kosovars' right to self determination. * The author teaches at Paris University. She writes regularly on former Yugoslavia and E. Europe for the French weekly Rouge and Le Monde Diplomatique
Tr