Concord group, Grassroots Actions for Peace, calls for a Ban on Depleted Uranium Weapons

What:  Demonstration in Concord Center at Flagpole, Monument Square

When: Monday, January 15, 2001, 8 - 9 am

Who: Grassroots Actions for Peace in conjunction with the Military Toxics Project and their member groups around the country during the National Week of Action to Ban Depleted Uranium Weapons.

Why: To mark the tenth anniversary of the Persian Gulf War and the first use of depleted uranium weaponry in warfare.

    Grassroots Actions for Peace is participating in solidarity with dozens of groups across the country to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of the Persian Gulf War, which marks the first time depleted uranium (DU) weapons were used in warfare.  Depleted uranium weapons were also used by the US in 1994 - 95 in Bosnia and most recently used by NATO in Yugoslavia.  These weapons cause widespread, long lasting and severe contamination to the sites of their production, testing and use.

    Over the last few weeks NATO and the Pentagon have been under intense scrutiny and pressure from other countries concerned that their troops, peacekeepers and civilians health may be at risk. Recently, spokespeople for Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, France and Turkey voiced strong concern in the media about the use of depleted uranium in the Balkans and the cancers occuring among their soldiers who served there in the 1990's.

    Depleted uranium, which comprises 99.8% of Uranium-238, has a half-life of 4.47 billion years.  The numbers of innocent victims exposed is incalculable and in direct violation

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of the International laws of War.  Depleted uranium weaponry has been listed among "weapons of mass destruction or with indiscriminate effect" by the United Nations Human Rights Sub-Committee on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities.  Already, these weapons have proliferated to at least 19 countries.  It is imperative that the U.S. and the international community explicitly address DU as UNCONVENTIONAL weaponry, and take steps to halt its proliferation, stop its production and BAN ITS USE.

    Starmet Corporation (formerly Nuclear Metals Inc.) has been a major U.S. manufacturer of depleted uranium weapons which has contaminated soil and groundwater in Concord.  Grassroots Actions for Peace, a Concord-based group has been working with another local group, CREW, to assure that the clean up of this radioactive contaminated site is thorough and complete.  Grassroots Actions for Peace has been working to educate the public in Concord and the Greater Boston area on the dangers of depleted uranium weapons to human health and the environment.

email contact: Grassroots Actions for Peace : dwyerjandc@AOL.com