Daily "Der Morgen": Belgian soldiers victims of "Balkans syndrome"
http://www.serbia-info.com/news/2000-09/12/20531.html
September 12, 2000

Brussels, September 11 (Tanjug) - Thousands of Belgian soldiers are suffering from disorders, and four have died of an unknown disease, which has already got name "Balkans syndrome", Brussels media has reported today. Between 15 and 20 percent of the 17,000 Belgian soldiers that took part in NATO operations in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo and Metohija, in the recent years, have been experiencing health problems, the Flemish daily "Der Morgen" says.

According to General Roger Van Hoof, the head of the medical department at the Belgian army General Staff, more than half of the soldiers complaining of chronic exhaustion, depression, lethargy, as well as various skin diseases, have been classified as victims of the so-called "Balkans syndrome", as the background to these disorders is not known yet.

Some 1,300 soldiers have undergone medical examinations, which military commission carried out, between April and June this year, and 16 percent of them have exhibited symptoms of the "Balkans syndrome".

According to him, from 17,000 Belgian soldiers, who served in different NATO missions in Balkans, from 1992, about 3,400 claim that "have specific health problems".

Belgian Army carried out systematic medical examinations after several cases of death had been reported among war veterans from Balkans and after the opening of file "Gulf syndrome". At the request of the army trade union, a parliamentary commission is to be set up soon to draft measures for dealing with the soldiers' problems, and for further research efforts.

Experts say that soldiers engaged in NATO missions in the Balkans are probably suffering from the "Gulf syndrome", and that various vaccines, as well as the use of ammunition charged with depleted uranium, biological or chemical substances, may be the cause of the disorders.

Medical experts have recently announced in Paris results of investigation of "Gulf syndrome" and concluded that American soldiers became ill, because of ammunition charged with depleted uranium, which NATO forces used in Kosovo and Metohija, Bosnia and Croatia.