The Telegraph, London
EU jittery as soldiers' cancer deaths linked to weapons
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0101/06/world/world2.html
By reporters in London, Paris, Rome

NATO has been urged to declare a moratorium on the use of depleted uranium rounds as concern mounted across Europe over a spate of deaths among soldiers who had served in the Balkans.

The French defence ministry said on Thursday four of its soldiers who were in the Balkans were being treated for leukaemia in military hospitals.

The affair has also caused concern in Italy, where six soldiers who served in Bosnia or Kosovo have died of cancer; in Belgium, where five have died in mysterious circumstances; in Holland, where two have died of leukaemia; and in Portugal, where the death of a young corporal made headlines over Christmas.

The European Commission President, Mr Romano Prodi, expressed his disquiet, saying light needed to be shed on possible links between sickness and the use of depleted uranium.

"I want the truth to be ascertained, not only concerning the soldiers, but also for the people who lived near them," he told Italian radio.

"If there is even a minimal risk, these arms must be abolished. Even if this risk was not there, I don't like the idea of using these particular weapons."

Italian concern rose to new levels this week when it was reported that a 24-year-old Sicilian, Salvatore Carbonaro, was the sixth Italian Bosnia veteran to die of leukaemia. Thirty others were said to be seriously ill.

Mr Carbonaro's family said he first showed symptoms three months after returning from his second tour of duty, in 1999. They were convinced that he was contaminated by uranium or liquid benzene after being assigned to an armoury in Bosnia.

The Prime Minister, Mr Giuliano Amato, suggested that Italy might have been kept in the dark over the dangers of peacekeeping operations in Bosnia.

President Carlo Ciampi called on NATO to provide more information.

An Italian defence minister, Mr Marco Minniti, said: "NATO should discuss our proposal for a moratorium on uranium-based munitions."

But he added: "At the moment, there does not seem to be any connection between the deaths or evidence that they are linked to the use of depleted uranium."

The French Defence Minister, Mr Alain Richard, ordered an investigation into the condition of the four French soldiers "to see how badly they have been affected and the risks to which they were exposed", his spokesman said. "He wants to establish if there could be an eventual link between the appearance of this leukaemia and the time that the affected personnel did in the Balkans."

In London, the Ministry of Defence said no British soldier was known to have died in suspicious circumstances in the wake of service in the Balkans and there was no evidence of any ill-effects caused by depleted uranium.

US bombers were said to have fired 10,800 rounds of depleted uranium ammunition in Bosnia in 1995.

There were about 31,000 depleted uranium rounds fired during the Kosovo conflict. More than one million were used during the Gulf War and veterans have cited them as one possible cause of Gulf War Syndrome.

But the Pentagon said that its studies had produced no evidence that depleted uranium had caused any illnesses in Gulf War or Balkan veterans. A number of Gulf War veterans still had pieces of depleted uranium shells in their bodies and seemed to be suffering no ill-effects from the radiation.

NATO has agreed to requests from Italy, Belgium and Portugal to investigate the effects of the use of depleted uranium in armour-piercing bombs and shells in the Balkans, particularly by American A10 aircraft.

A NATO spokesman said that the North Atlantic Council would meet on Tuesday to discuss the matter.

But he added that updated medical studies did "not show any link between the use of depleted uranium and the death of the military personnel".