Friday, December 22 9:43 PM SGT
Italy did not know depleted uranium arms used in Bosnia: minister
http://sg.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/article.html?s=singapore/headlines/001222/world/afp/Italy_did_not_know_depleted_uranium_arms_used_in_Bosnia__minister.html

ROME, Dec 22 (AFP) -

The Italian government said on Friday it did not know that depleted uranium arms were used in Bosnia by NATO, just days after an inquiry was launched into why seven military personnel recently died of leukemia.

Parliamentary sources said Defence Minister Sergio Mattarella had affirmed that "10,800 depleted uranium projectiles were fired by American aircraft," on Bosnia between 1994 and 1995.

"I must express my bitterness that the competent international organisations have waited until now to answer our request for information that is important for the Bosnian community and members of the military," Mattarella said.

However NATO said on Friday that DU rounds were "fired from A-10 Thunderbolt aircraft, under international auspices," and that the fact had been known for several years.

A NATO official in Brussels added: "There is nothing secret about DU rounds being fired in Bosnia."

NATO denies that other munitions containing depleted uranium, such as bombs and shells, had been fired when US aircraft went into action over Bosnia in the last two years of its 1992-95 war.

Depleted uranium weapons are denser than conventional arms, which means they can penetrate heavy armour more easily. They were used on Iraq in 1990 and 1991 and during the air campaign against Belgrade last year.

According to the independent Italian Observatory for the Protection of the Armed Forces, seven military personnel who served in Bosnia and Kosovo have died and a dozen others are ill from exposure to radiation from depleted uranium weapons.

The defence ministry confirmed that 11 personnel had recently developed leukemia and that three of them had since died, but it said only five had taken part in Balkans "peace missions."

Mattarella, who has launched a scientific inquiry into the deaths, said all possible light would be shed on the matter and that there was no need for alarm.

He said no link had yet been established between the cases and depleted uranium weapons.

The defence ministry said between 30,000 and 40,000 Italian soldiers have served in the Balkans.

In Lisbon, the newspaper Publico -- citing a Lisbon cancer specialist -- reported on Friday that the death of a Portuguese soldier who served in Kosovo could be linked to NATO's use of depleted uranium weapons in the Balkans.

The Portuguese military has remained silent on the issue, and a military source questioned by Publico said medical examinations of the soldier, a 24-year-old corporel, had been inconclusive.