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このお知らせは、"ducj","aml","NoNukes"に投稿します。転載を歓迎致します。
ダブッテ見ている方には、申し訳ありません。
ニューヨークの国際行動センターより送ってきた、劣化ウランに関する情報です。
長くて申しわけありませんが、歴史的背景も手際よくまとめていますので、全文
を転載します。イスラエルで劣化ウラン弾を使った疑惑も示されています。翻訳
することが出来ずに申しわけありません。
ところどころに不正な文字コードがありますので、極力取り除いたつもりですが、
一つでも不正な文字コードが残っていると、この電子メール全体が文字化けしま
す。もし、そのようなことがありましたら再投稿しますので、お手数をかけて申
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ところで、このような不正コードによる文字化けにはいつも悩まされています。
取り除くには、相当に手間がかかります。不正コードをチェックして取り除くた
めに、良い方法は無いでしょうか？ご存じの方は教えていただけないでしょうか。
Forwarded by NOMURA; Osami <peace-st@jca.apc.org>
---------------- Original message follows ----------------
From: iacenter@iacenter.org
To: "International" <iacenter@iacenter.org>
Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2000 14:38:01 -0500
Subject: Is Israel using DU radioactive weapons?
--
<color><param>0100,0100,0100</param><FontFamily><param>Times
New Roman</param><bigger>IS THE ISRAELI
MILITARY USING DEPLETED-URANIUM
WEAPONS AGAINST THE PALESTINIANS?
International Action Center calls for an investigation
By John Catalinotto and Sara Flounders,
Depleted Uranium Education Project of the International Action
Center
The International Action Center calls upon international
organizations, NGOs, environmental and health organizations to
investigate the Israeli military's use of prohibited weapons
in the
West Bank and Gaza, and to mobilize to stop it. These weapons
include dumdum bullets and CS gas. The IAC believes it also
includes depleted- uranium weapons.
The effect of dumdum bullets and CS gas is immediate, easily shown
and obvious. Using radioactive and toxic depleted-uranium
weapons is an additional crime that has an insidious long-term
effect, not only on combatants and civilians in the vicinity,
but over
a broad area and to the general environment, as has been shown
by
the Pentagon's massive use of DU weapons in Yugoslavia and
especially in Iraq.
The International Action Center's own investigative team on Nov. 1
and 2 saw Israeli helicopter gun ships firing into densely populated
areas. According to international law these attacks on civilian areas
are war crimes--as is the long-term destruction of the environment
>from DU contamination.
Mobilizing investigations, public challenges and mass protests
against the use of DU weapons can stop this crime against
humanity.
The aim of this paper is to show with supporting data that it is
credible that the Israeli military is using DU weapons in the
Occupied Territories. We know that Israel is DU-armed and
capable, and shielding on Israeli tanks is DU-reinforced. The
IAC
urges scientists, doctors and soldiers who know of the use of
DU
shells to come forward with definitive proof that the Israeli
military
has at least tested DU weapons in its attacks on Palestinian
offices
and homes. In addition, we urge environmental and other
organizations to demand an accounting from these authorities.
It will also show how following similar Pentagon or U.S. government
denials regarding test-firing DU weapons in Puerto Rico, Okinawa
Panama and south Korea, revelations and public pressure have
forced admissions and in some cases have won pledges to stop
firing DU weapons. In Kosovo, Yugoslavia, and in the
Persian/Arabian Gulf region this pressure has led to international
investigations and legal actions against DU use.
DU IS PART OF ISRAELI ARSENAL
U.S. arms make up the major part of the Israeli arsenal and Israel
has been the number one recipient of U.S. arms aid for decades.
These U.S. weapons include the M1 Abrams tank which fires
DU shells and is armored with DU-reinforced metal. The Apache
and the Cobra helicopter gun ships are also equipped to fire
DU
shells. Since this latest Intifada started, the U.S. has shipped
Israel
The newest and most advanced multi-mission attack helicopters
in
the U.S. inventory, as reported in the Jerusalem Post. These
were
Apache helicopters.
The IAC delegation witnessed Israeli attack helicopters, which
people described to them as Apache helicopters from the U.S.,
firing shells and rockets at targets in and around Ramallah on
Nov.
1. They then examined a small office used by the Fatah organization
that the projectiles hit and destroyed.
The following day they saw machine guns on tanks being fired at
Palestinian youths in Ramallah armed only with rocks and slingshots.
They also visited a Fatah office near Nablus that Israeli rockets
had
hit the night before.
The IAC delegation gathered up shell casings and metal fragments in
these areas. As they were preparing to leave from Ben Gurion
Airport in Tel Aviv, members of the IAC delegation were stopped,
searched and interrogated. The shell casings and metal fragments
were confiscated. While this prevented the IAC from arranging its
own tests, it made them even more suspicious that the Israeli forces
were using DU shells and trying to hide it.
Because of its great density, DU is also used to stabilize or balance
airplanes and missiles, including the Tomahawk Cruise missile.
When the missile explodes, or should the plane crash, the DU burns
and is released into the air just as it is when DU shells hit steel.
DU
is also used to shield tanks, including the M1 Abrams tank used by
the U.S. and Israel. After 32 continuous days, or 64 12-hour days,
the amount of radiation a tank driver receives to his head from
overhead armor will exceed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's
standard for public whole-body annual exposure to man-made
sources of radiation.
Whether from shells or from the scrapings from tanks moving
around the countryside, radioactive materials enter into the
land, the
water and the whole food chain, contaminating the densely
populated West Bank and Gaza, where water is a scarce resource.
Wanton radioactive contamination of this region is a crime against
all of humanity and a threat to the entire region now and for
generations to come.
According to the LAKA Foundation in the Netherlands, the Israeli
army first used depleted-uranium weapons in the 1973 war, under
direction from U.S. advisers.
The same 1995 report from the U.S. Army Environmental Policy
Institute mentioned earlier asserts that Israel is one of the countries
with DU munitions in its arsenal. These included at that time at least
Bahrain, Egypt, France, Greece, Kuwait, Pakistan Russia, Saudi
Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, as well
as the United States. This assertion has been repeated in the
Christian Science Monitor, the Jerusalem Post, the San Francisco
Chronicle and other newspapers.
Israel has a nuclear-weapons program more developed than that of
any country except the five major nuclear powers. For exposing this
nuclear program, Mordechai Vanunu, a nuclear-weapons
technician, was kidnapped by the Mossad and held in solitary
confinement 14 years.
Given Israel's own nuclear program and well-developed military
industry, the likelihood is that Israel is a manufacturer of DU
ammunition. The firm Rafael of Israel is named in numerous reports
as being such a manufacturer. But even if this were not the case,
Israel has been able to import DU weapons from the United States.
DANGERS FROM DEPLETED URANIUM
DU, much like natural uranium from which it hardly differs, is both
radioactive and toxic. DU is a waste product of the process that
produces enriched uranium for use in atomic weapons and nuclear
power plants. Over a billion pounds of DU exists in the United
States and must be safely stored or disposed of by the Department
of Energy. With its half-life of 4.5 billion years, the radioactivity
of
DU is effectively eternal.
It is so abundant it has been given away to arms manufacturers.
Because it is extremely dense .7 times as dense as lead--when
turned into a metal DU can be used to make a shell that easily
penetrates steel. In addition it is pyrophoric, that is, it burns when
heated by friction from when it strikes steel.
When DU burns, this spews tiny particles of poisonous and
radioactive uranium oxide in the air. The small particles can be
ingested or inhaled by humans for miles around, and even one
particle, when lodged in a vital organ, can be dangerous.
The Pentagon tested DU shells at various sites around the U.S., and
used it openly in combat against Iraq during the 1991 Gulf war.
At
least 600,000 pounds of DU and uranium dust was left around Iraq,
Kuwait and Saudi Arabia by U.S. and British forces during that
war.
Although the U.S. government and military continue to deny or
minimize the environmental and health dangers from depleted
uranium weapons, they themselves have to admit these dangers
exist. A 1995 report from the U.S. Army Environmental Policy
Institute, entitled the Health and Environmental Consequences of
Depleted Uranium in the U.S. Army stated,If DU enters the
body, it has the potential to generate significant medical
consequences. The risks associated with DU in the body are both
chemical and radiological.... Personnel inside or near vehicles
struck by DU penetrators could receive significant internal
exposures.
DU is also considered at least a contributing cause to the 130,000
reported cases of "Gulf War Syndrome. Numerous international
studies in Britain, the United States and in Iraq have linked Gulf
War
Syndrome to the use of radioactive weapons in the bombing. The
chronic symptoms of this ailment range from sharp increases in
cancers to memory loss chronic pain, fatigue and birth defects in the
veterans and children.
The damage to the Iraqi people was even more severe. A
symposium in Baghdad in December 1998 found higher rates of
childhood leukemia and other cancers in people living around
Basra, Iraq, and attributed this to DU contamination. Data was
presented on the pattern of a more than five-fold increase in
many
cancers, a ten-fold increase in uterine cancer and a sixteen
fold
increase in ovarian cancer and the high incidence of still births
and
congenital deformities, especially in Southern Iraq.
U.S. USE OF DU WEAPONS WORLDWIDE
The only admitted use of DU in combat has been in the 1991 war
against Iraq, the 1995 NATO bombing of Bosnia and the massive
NATO assault on Yugoslavia in 1999. There have, however, been
other instances when the Pentagon has test-fired DU shells in such
a
way that it has endangered nearby civilians. Besides the many
tests
conducted within the United States, these include DU testing at sites
in Vieques, Puerto Rico; Okinawa, Japan; Panama and South
Korea.
VIEQUES, PUERTO RICO
Vieques, an island near and part of Puerto Rico, has been a
Pentagon target-practice site since 1940. For the past few years
and especially since an errant U.S. bomb killed a Vieques resident
in April 1999, people in Vieques and all Puerto Rico have
mobilized to stop the testing on that island. As part of this
mass
mobilization, they have demanded that the U.S. Navy fulfill its
responsibility to the local environment and clean up depleted-
uranium shells it fired on the island.
While first denying it did such testing, in January 2000, Navy
spokespeople admitted firing 263 shells reinforced with DU during
practice runs in Vieques, claiming they did so "by accident." They
said Navy forces were able to recover 57 rounds, leaving 206.
Removing the DU contamination has remained one of the demands
of the movement in Vieques. Dr. Doug Rokke, former Director of
the Pentagon's Depleted Uranium Project, has condemned the
Navy's use of DU in Vieques and called in a Feb. 9, 2000 news
release for complete environmental remediation of all affected
terrain and medical care be provided for all affected residents
of
Vieques."
OKINAWA
The U.S. government never notified Japan it was testing DU
weapons near Okinawa. Yet it turned out that a U.S Marine Corps
AV-8B Harrier jet in late 1995 had test fired 1,520 rounds of DU
ammunition. The Pentagon finally admitted this in an article published
in the Washington Times on Feb. 10, 1997. This created such a
national outrage including angry denunciations in the Japanese Duma
that the U.S. government apologized, agreed to remove the
weapons from bases on Okinawa and make an extensive clean-up
of the site.
As reported in the Japanese daily Mainichi Shimbun, Pentagon
spokesperson Kenneth Bacon said the U.S. military has moved all
depleted-uranium bullets deployed in Okinawa to south Korea. He
also reportedly said that in south Korea, the shells are closer to
a
"potential battlefield.
According to the Mainichi Shimbun article, a South Korean foreign
ministry source said the U.S.-puppet government in Seoul had not
been informed of the transfer. "If it is the case that the move was
made to avoid further controversy in Japan, it could disturb
sentiments of the [south Korean] people," the source reportedly
said.
SOUTH KOREA
And it did. U.S. Air-Force veteran turned peace activist during the
war against Vietnam Brian Willson reports on his May 2000 visit to
South Korea.
For Example, in May 2000, Koreans discovered that U.S.Air
Force A-10s were practice bombing at a 50-year-old
bombing/strafing range (Koon Ni) near the village of Maehyang
Ri,
fifty-five miles southwest of Seoul. On May 8, due to an in-flight
emergency, one of the A-10s quickly dropped six bombs outside
of the prescribed bombing area, damaging some houses in the
village and injuring seven residents.
Local Korean villagers have been vehemently opposed to the use
of their historic farmland for U.S. bombing and strafing practice
ever since the Korean government first provided the 5900-acre
Koon Ni site free of charge to the U.S. military in 1951. The
Korean government does not even collect from the U.S. the utility
fees entailed for operating the range, now leased by the Pentagon
to the world's largest arm's manufacturer, Lockheed Martin. When
people inquired into the purpose of the A-10s, and asked for
explanations for the errant bombing, they discovered that A-10s
were heavily used in Kosovo and Serbia delivering DU-coated
weapons.
The local people of Maehyang Ri demanded an answer from the
Korean government and U.S. military in Korea as to whether DU
weapons were being stored in Korea or used in any way during
practice bombings. Though at first officials denied presence of DU,
incessant pressure by doubting Korean people finally elicited an
admission from officials of both the Korean government and U.S.
forces that, indeed, DU was present in Korea. It had been moved
there in February 1997 from bases in Okinawa, after the Japanese
complained of its presence there. And though Korean and U.S.
officials denied that they used DU in practices at the Koon Ni range,
they did admit that on two occasions in 1997, DU weapons were
inadvertently expended in Korea.
PANAMA
According to an article in the Aug. 20, 1997 Christian Science
Monitor, Rick Stauber, A member of the seven-person team that
prepared the US Department of Defense's report on leftover
ordnance at three military firing ranges in Panama, says during his
investigation he was handed a report, listing all US weapon testing
>from the 1960s to the early 1990s, that showed that 120mm
depleted- uranium projectiles were fired on Empire Range.
At first, U.S. Ambassador William Hughs denied Stauber's report.
When the Fellowship of Reconciliation brought this to the attention
of Panamanian daily newspapers, the strong reaction forced
Washington to admit that the military had at least stored DU
shells
in Panama to test their deterioration in tropical climates. Stauber,
a
military consultant, said that they would then be obliged to
test fire
at least some of the shells to see if they were functional.
KOSOVO, YUGOSLAVIA
Early in NATO's war against Yugoslavia, on April 1, 1999, the
International Action Center sent out a news release charging the
U.S. with using DU weapons against Yugoslavia. While the
Pentagon was trying to avoid comment on this, Pentagon
spokespeople had already told the media that the A-10 Warthog
anti-tank plane was being used against Yugoslav tanks in Kosovo.
Finally pressure on this question from the media forced the
Pentagon to acknowledge use of DU.
Still, NATO headquarters and especially the Pentagon withheld
cooperation with investigations of DU contamination of Kosovo.
On Oct. 14, 1999, a United Nations official who chairs the task
force investigating the impact on the environment of the 78-day
U.S.- NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia said that
NATO officials had refused to cooperate regarding their use of
depleted- uranium weapons. Pekka Haavisto, task-force
chairperson, said his team was unable to determine the extent
of
pollution caused by uranium-tipped weapons. He said NATO
refused either to admit using the weapons or to cooperate with
the
task force.
Finally though, in a letter to the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan
>from NATO Secretary-General,
Lord Robertson, it states;
DU rounds were used whenever the A-10 engaged armor during
Operation Allied Force. Therefore, it was used throughout Kosovo
during approximately 100 missions A total of approximately
31,000 rounds of DU ammunition was used in operation Allied
Force. The major focus of these operations was in an area west
of
the Pec- Dakovica-Prizren highway, in the area surrounding Klina,
in the area around Prizren and in an area to the north of a line
joining Suva Reka and Urosevac. However many missions using
DU also took place outside these areas.
According to articles written October 2000 by Rainer Rupp in the
Berlin daily, Junge Welt, and by British journalist Felicity Arbuthnot,
concern over DU dangers have created problems involving both
UN personnel and NATO-country troops occupying Kosovo.
Last week [Oct 14-20] the French government followed its Italian
counterpart and launched an investigation of the effects of spent
depleted uranium shells on its soldiers in Kosovo. Two Italian K-
FOR (occupation) soldiers who were stricken with cancer and who
showed symptoms similar to those with Gulf War Syndrome are to
be flown from Kosovo to Rome in the near future.
The Rome military prosecutor followed his colleagues in Milan,
Turin and Venice and set underway an investigation of the effects
of
DU- shells on Italian troops in Kosovo. With this in the background
the Portuguese defense minister has decided to withdraw the
Portuguese troop contingent from Kosovo. (Junge Welt, Oct. 24)
Notice that in all these cases the military authorities at first either
stonewalled or denied that DU was being used, then wound up
having to admit it.
ISRAELI EL AL JET
A flaming crash of an El Al cargo jet in Bijlmer, a suburb of
Amsterdam on Oct. 4, 1992, killing 43 people has been the target
of ongoing research. The health consequences for people in a
whole section of Amsterdam has created an ongoing movement of
the Dutch Greens on the chemical and radiological toxicity of
depleted uranium.
The El Al Boeing 747 jet had on board tons of chemicals,
flammable liquids, substances used in the manufacture of nerve
gas
and 1,500 kilograms of DU in the form of counterweights. Both
the
nerve gas chemicals and the DU have long been a topic of debate.
The Dutch Ministry of Defense report Health risks during
exposure to uranium documented the radiotoxic effects of DU in
the human body.
THE GULF WAR
U.S. veterans organizations have campaigned to demand
investigation and compensation for their extremely high incidence
of
chronic sicknesses among Gulf War veterans. The U.S. government
has denied their claims.
IS ISRAEL USING DU IN COMBAT?
Some may argue that because the Israelis are not firing against
tanks the strongest military justification for using DU shells shut
against unarmed or at the most lightly armed and virtually
unprotected opponents, there is no special reason for them to
be
using DU shells.
This is true. But the same could be said for U.S. forces in Vieques,
Panama, Okinawa and south Korea, yet DU weapons were tested
in all those places. Like the Pentagon brass, the Israeli general
staff
would want to try out their weapons under all conditions, especially
in combat. Now that they are firing at homes and offices in an
attempt to punish the Fatah leadership, they would want to see
if
DU shells penetrate concrete as they do steel and if this makes
a
difference in battle.
The Israeli military has already shown its racist contempt for the
Palestinians by firing to maim thousands and kill hundreds of young
people protesting the occupation of their country, people armed in
the great majority with stones and slingshots. As of Nov. 20, over
240 people have been killed and over 8,000 wounded.
And the Israeli officers have a strong reason to use DU-shielded
tanks. They want the Israeli soldiers and their families to think that
they are invulnerable in their tanks and armored personal carriers
shielded with DU armor. If the troops grow ill months or years later
>from their constant exposure to radiation, that is no longer a political
problem for the generals. The same is true when they handle shells
and fire rounds from tank guns.
The Israeli peace movement and the families of the troops, should
know that the illusion of invincibility comes at a price. There has
already been the beginning of resistance among individual Israeli
troops to playing the role of oppressor. This movement should
seriously consider the dangers of DU.
The first step to exposing and stopping this crime and its long-term
impact is to start a serious investigation of Israeli use of depleted-
uranium weapons.
______________________________________________
Sara Flounders and John Catalinotto are editors and contributors to
the book Metal of Dishonor: Depleted Uranium and organizers of
the Depleted Uranium Education Project based at the International
Action Center in New York City. Flounders returned Nov. 3,
2000, from a five-day fact-finding trip to the West Bank and
Gaza.
The DU Education Project of the IAC is not a scientific research
organization. But it has based its published material on the work of
many prominent scientists and anti-nuclear organizations to create
an
awareness of the Pentagon's reckless disregard for all human
life
and for the future even in their limited and conventional wars
against
small and developing nations.
The International Action Center is an organization committed to
building resistance to U.S. militarism, war and racism. The IAC
attempts to link together through information and concrete solidarity
many different struggles.
Information on the campaign against the U.S. use of DU weapons is
available on the IAC web site: www.iacenter.org. "Metal of
Dishonor: Depleted Uranium" is available from the IAC or may be
ordered on line from: www.leftbooks.com. To contact the IAC on
this question, call 212-633-6646 or email them at
iacenter@iacenter.org.
International Action Center
39 West 14th Street, Room 206
New York, NY 10011
email: iacenter@iacenter.org
web: http://www.iacenter.org
CHECK OUT SITE
http://www.mumia2000.org
phone: 212 633-6646
fax: 212 633-2889
*To make a tax-deductible donation,
go to
http://www.peoplesrightsfund.org
---------------- Original message end ----------------
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仲田博康
nakada_h@jca.apc.org