The following information will give you an idea of the upcoming trip that IDUST has planned to Iraq. Damacio Lopez, IDUST Executive Director will be visiting sites hit by cruise missiles in Baghdad, Babylon, Mosul and Bashra to acquire soil samples to be later tested for depleted uranium (DU) in European labs. IDUST intends to collect a total of 10 samples weighting 100 grams each.

Damacio will travel to Iraq as a delegate of the Iraq Sanctions Challenge IV, a project of the International Action Center from January 14 to January 19, 2001. He will pick up soil samples at sites where cruse missiles hit in Baghdad, Babylon, Mosul and Boshra. On the 19th of January with samples in hand he will arrive in London, where the split samples will be turned over to a lab to test for DU contamination, the second set of samples will go to a lab in an undisclosed country. A press conference can follow if there is anything to report.

The U.S. Navy has denied that DU was used in the Tomahawk Cruse Missiles in Iraq or Yugoslavia, however on October 26th 2000 at the Mini-Symposium on Depleted Uranium in Brussels, Belgium, Mr. Lopez witnessed a Belgian military medical officer named Martin Zizi list several types of DU projectiles and his list also included cruise missiles containing DU in the nose cone and the ballast (counterweights) as NATO weapons used in Yugoslavia. It is important to know for sure if sites hit by cruse missiles have been contaminated by DU. cruse missiles hit many populated cities. Six thousand children die each month in Iraq. Precautionary measures can save lives.

Damacio Lopez, Executive Director International Depleted Uranium Study Team (IDUST) phone (505) 867-0141, Maria Santelli, Research Director (505) 247-9694