The soldier Hugo Paulino, 24 years old, arrived from Kosovo in February. He complained about headaches and indisposition. He died on 9th March in the Military Hospital. According to his father, Luís Paulino, the exams neither accused meningitis nor encephalitis. He believes his son died victim of the radiation caused by the depleted uranium, resultant of the NATO bombing campaign in the Balkans. A hypothesis that is also supported for the news published in other countries, as Italy, that referred the death of some soldiers that served in Kosovo. Even if it was not enough, already in February NATO had recognized to the UN the use of ammunitions of depleted uranium, during the Spring of 1999, with great incidence in the zone where the Portuguese troops were located last February - Klina.

At this momment, the cause of Hugo Paulino's death has not been confirmed yet. In agreement with TVI, the father asked for the report of the autopsy last 21st May, but he didn't obtain any reply. Diário de Noticias tried yesterday to clarify this subject with  the Ministry of the Defense and the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, but the answers were always sent in the form of an official report. At the time of the printing of this edition, our newspaper was informed that, after all, the official report will only be published today, as a document of the MoD.

It is peculiar to mention that an insider of that ministry spoke to DN about that this " is not still a political  subject". And  that the MoD was only going to gather information of the Army on what is known about the soldier's death, and later on releasing such official report.

The same official source also said the soldiers go out with equipment to measure the radiation levels and that those were zero. So, it  "does not make sense" to appeal to the services of the Nuclear Technological Institute. Besides, the Portuguese authorities trust fully in the monitoring done by NATO.

As DN announced on 20th September, NATO General-Secretary  wrote, last February, to his UN homologue to confirm the use of ammunitions with depleted uranium during the aerial campaign of the Alliance in Kosovo. In total, in about a hundred missions,  about ten tons of ammunitions were "spilled". At that time, the subject caused noise in other allied countries, having produced a great public debates mainly in Italy, Germany and Holland. [In Portugal] the political and military authorities did not consider there was a need for such debates.

In Italy, for instance, in the last days nobody have been talking about another thing. Even  the responsible of the National Observatory for the Welfare of the Personnel of the Armed Forces spoke out to denounce that soldiers previously stationed in the Balkans are dying of cancer and leukaemia, due to the radiations of depleted uranium.

The parliamentary groups of the Social-Democratic Party and the Communist Party of Portugal want to see the subject explained and clarified in order to determine the seriousness of the situation. In a note  sent to the Government, the communists questioned the minister of the Defence, that considers the exposing to radiations was innocuous for the Portuguese military. The social-democrats asked Minister Castro Caldas what measures are being taken to safeguard the Portuguese soldiers.

* With Manuela Paixão