PALE (Beta) - More than 400 Serb refugees from the Sarajevo municipality of Hadzici have died from cancer of the internal organs or heart attack, "Beta" learned in Bratunac, a municipality in the eastern part of Republika Srpska where the Serb population of Hadzici moved following the signing of the Dayton agreement.

Beta's source said that approximately 4,500 Serbs came to Bratunac from Hadzici and that during the past five years, there was a death every third or fourth day among the Sarajevo community.

In September 1995 Hadzici was targeted by powerful attacks by NATO aviation which used bombs with depleted uranium. During the same time, Hadzici was shelled by NATO rapid reaction forces on Mt. Igman which also used ammunition with depleted uranium.

During the course of a single day, September 12, 1995, more than 200 NATO airplanes flew over Hadzici dropping more than 300 projectiles. The military technical repair center (VTRZ) was leveled with the ground and Republic of Srpska Army (VRS) barracks in Zunovica and Usivak were heavily targeted.

"Beta's" source claims that in a great number of instances the victims of cancer and heart attack were employees of VTRZ or Hadzici locals who lived close to locations shelled from the ground or bombed from the air.

According to the same source, during the past six months three former VTRZ workers passed away: Djoko Zelenovic, who was found alive among the ruins in 1995, of bone cancer; Drago Vujovic of peritoneal cancer; and a certain Elcic of lung cancer.

The source claims that there is also an increase in the number of deaths among present residents of Hadzici, primarily Muslim and Serb refugees to that municipality.

Prior to moving from Hadzici, the Serbs tested the bombed sites and measured radiation levels. At that time Serb Television (today Radio-Television RS) showed film clearly demonstrating that the radiation levels in those locations far exceeded allowable doses.

At the same time, a senior officer of the VRS who wished to remain anonymous confirmed that in 1996 Italian troops serving within NATO visited locations in the vicinity of Sarajevo in 1996 which were shelled by projectiles with depleted uranium. Besides soldiers and officers of the VRS, the members of the Italian brigade of IFOR had the most contact with ruins, the remains of damaged technical equipment and unexploded ordnance because these sites were within their zone of responsibility," claims the officers.

However, he was unable to say whether increased levels of radiation had been found at these locations.

"At the time the VRS did not have the capability of conducting measurements of radioactivity levels. Experts came from Belgrade and conducted tests but I am not familiar with the results of those tests," concluded the VRS officer.

Translated by S. Lazovic (January 6, 2001)