Lisbon: Portuguese forces in Kosmet "uranium meat"
October 12, 2000
http://www.serbia-info.com/news/2000-10/12/20877.html

Lisbon, October 11th (Tanjug) - Portuguese Defense Minister has informed NATO Headquarters that he will withdrew his troops from Kosmet. This decision of Lisbon government is the right one and it should have been made earlier, Antonio Pereira says in his editorial in the leading Lisbon journal "Diario de Noticias".

The author says "Portuguese forces should not have participated in Atlantic alliance operations in the war on Yugoslav territory last year".

Pereira criticizes NATO and states that his journal recently published the truth that "Portuguese soldiers were sent on missions in the area poisoned with depleted uranium".

Portuguese armed forces within NATO have been in Kosmet since August last year and had the operations in dangerous areas, the commentator points out and claims that NATO Secretary-General, George Robertson, was familiar with "the dangers caused by certain dose of radiation that Portuguese units have been exposed to".

"Diario de Noticias" recently wrote about Lisbon's concerns and pointed out that "NATO confirmed the existence of depleted uranium in the areas where Portuguese soldiers in Kosovo were stationed".

"Un representative in Kosovo where armed forces of other countries are stationed, but out of the radiation's reach, confirmed that these reports were true, apologized and announced the replacement on the field", Pereira writes adding "there are oppositions in the headquarters of other countries to performing missions in poisoned areas".

Pereira ends his editorial with a question: "If it is hard to persuade the authorized military circles in Washington, Paris, London or Berlin, to send their troops to critical areas in Kosovo, does that mean that the Portuguese are to represent uranium meat?"