F.A.Z. BERLIN. The German defense minister admitted on Friday that U.S. forces had "inadvertently" detonated depleted uranium munitions a number of times in Germany during the 1980s.

The announcement came two days after Rudolf Scharping called in a top U.S. diplomat and demanded the documentation following reports that U.S. military officials may have suppressed information concerning the makeup and possible health effects of the munitions.

Amid continuing concern in Europe that the tens of thousands of uranium-tipped shells fired by the Americans in the Balkans may ultimately have caused cancers among some troops there, Mr. Scharping briefed German parliamentarians on incidents involving the munitions in Germany.

He told the Bundestag that in several cases, mostly in the 1980s, depleted uranium munitions had been mistakenly discharged or destroyed when the U.S. tanks carrying them caught fire.

All information about the incidents came from U.S. officials and had been reviewed, he added.

Mr. Scharping identified incidents during U.S. military exercises in Fulda, Lampertheim, Schweinfurt, Grafenwöhr, Garlstedt and other centers since 1981. He said that, in light of the new information, answers given on the matter between 1995 and 1997 by the Christian Democratic Union-led government at the time would have to be reevaluated.

In response to two separate questions posed by Mr. Scharping's Social Democrats during that period the government declined to say if such munitions had been used in Germany.

Meanwhile, a Defense Ministry spokesman confirmed that an arms company had tested depleted uranium munitions in Germany, but apparently not since the early 1970s. The spokesman, Detlef Puhl, said the firing had taken place on property belonging to the Rheinmetall firm, and that the ministry had no information on such munitions being fired on Bundeswehr lands.

Officials in Lower Saxony, where the Rheinmetall property is located, said they were investigating whether laws on radioactivity had been violated.

According to the Defense Ministry, the customer was the German Office for Weapons Technology and Procurement in Koblenz. As a result of the tests, the company opted to use tungsten and not uranium technology, said a Rheinmetall spokesman.

Angelika Beer, the defense policy spokeswoman for Alliance 90_The Greens, charged both the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and earlier German governments with concealing facts to head off political pressure for a ban on the munitions.

Mr. Scharping had "been perhaps too willing to trust statements made by the former government" as regards the munitions tests, Ms. Beer said.

NATO on Thursday admitted that it had known for years that depleted uranium could contain traces of plutonium, but that the concentration levels were so low as to be "irrelevant."

Jan. 19

© Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 2000