International Action Center
39 West 14th Street, #206, New York, NY 10011
212-633-6646 fax: 212-633-2889
web site: http://www.iacenter.org
email: iacenter@iacenter.org Radioactive weapons used
by U.S. and NATO in Kosovo
（April 1, 1999）冗談ではない？
インターナショナル・アクション・センター （IAC) の速報によりますと、ペンタゴンは
ユーゴへの「人道的介入」爆撃でまたしても劣化ウラン弾を使用する.決定を下したとのこ
とです。
IACで働く女性との電話での会話では、米軍が ボスニアで使用したことを認めたこともあり、
ペンタゴンの決定に伴ない、すでにユーゴでも使用している可能性が強いということです。
劣化ウラン弾の引き起こす様々な環境と人体への影響は『劣化ウラン弾 湾岸戦争で何が行
われたか』（１９９７）に詳しく紹介されているので省略しますが
自分たちが救うといった
人々を長期にわたって、彼/彼女らの子孫の代まで傷つける可能性は大です。
IAC速報の詳細は下記の本文をお読みください。上記の本 （原題・Metal of
Dishonor:
Depleted Uranium）がアラビア語と日本語で第二版が出版されることも書いてあります。
本購入ご希望の方へ販売元のアドレスをと思ったのですがちょっと見つかりません。
またこの機会に宣伝なさっては．．． 電話の女性の話によりますと、IACは近日、ボスニア
での劣化ウラン 弾使用問題の詳細を含めた Metal of Dishonor: Depleted
Uranium の第
二版をリリースするということです。 安倍
rentai@labyrinth.net The International Action Center, a group
that opposes the use of
depleted-uranium weapons, called the Pentagon's decision to use
the
A-10 "Warthog" jets against targets in Kosovo "a danger to the
people
and environment of the entire Balkans."
The A-10s were the anti-tank weapon of choice in the 1991 war
against
Iraq. It carries a GAU-8/A Avenger 30 millimeter seven-barrel
cannon
capable of firing 4,200 rounds per minute. During that war it
fired
30 mm rounds reinforced with depleted uranium, a radioactive
weapon.
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 residues
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 International Action Center and an editor of the
1997
book Metal of Dishonor: 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 those in Kosovo."
Catalinotto explained that the Pentagon uses DU, 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 form in shells to make them penetrate
targets better. 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
Catalinotto.
Sara Flounders, a contributing author of Metal of Dishonor: Depleted
Uranium and the Co-Director of the International Action Center,
said,
"Warthogs fired roughly 940,000 rounds of DU shells during the
Gulf
War. More than 600,000 pounds of radioactive waste was left
in the
Gulf Region after the war. And 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_along with their children--they claim to be
saving;
this is another reason for fighting to end NATO's attack on
Yugoslavia.
"Worldwide protests against these bombings are growing. The U.S.
use
of radioactive weapons must be linked to all the protests and
opposition that is taking place internationally to the bombing.
These
protests must be joined by environmental activists, veterans
groups,
anti-nuclear groups, and all those who know the long-term destruction
to the environment and to whole civilian populations that this
type of
warfare will cause."
Flounders said that Metal of Dishonor: Depleted Uranium, which
has
been translated and published in Arabic and Japanese, will be
coming
out soon with a second edition.