THE OTHER SIDE OF JUSTICE

Tamara Stupar

NIN, 10/30/97

The Gulf Syndrome in Bosnia

The Federal Committee's report on the investigation of war crimes in Bosnia-Herzegovina contains data stating that NATO aviation used radioactive projectiles during the bombing of Republika Srpska and Knin Krajina; however, that document is coded "strictly confidential" and is not available to the public.

While the authors of the Dayton peace plan feverishly attempt to preserve the mosaic of a state whose future is still uncertain, medical specialists and members of some ecological movements and organizations have been warning for two years that the people there were not only victims of mutual destruction, but were also victims of a morbid NATO experiment of which the consequences, with certainty, will be far reaching.

Against both the hypocrisy of the Western political and military establishment and the local political and state ruling circles -- who declare to support human values and principles while at the same time silently approving participation in the unscrupulous destruction of lives of "ordinary people" whose existence is often reduced to a mute testimony of their own helplessness -- an isolated, and usually lonely, voice speaks out.

Dr. Zoran Stankovic (age 43), a pathologist and the head of the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the Military Medical Academy in Belgrade -- who as a member of the Yugoslav Committee for investigating war crimes was in Republika Srpska in the fall of 1995 immediately after the bombing by NATO forces, and later continuously toured the most endangered locations -- said to NIN that occurrences of "gulf sickness" are evident in the population. That syndrome in its mildest form is manifested by CNS disorders, psychological discomforts and digestive problems; its most acute form is manifested by a rise in malignancies, leukemia and higher numbers of stillborn babies.

Increased records of "gulf sickness" occurrences in the regions of Sarajevo, Foca, Doboj and Knin, are the basis of suspicion that NATO aviation -- in violation of the Geneva Convention's protection of war victims -- used radioactive projectiles (whose penetrable armor contains weakened uranium) in Republika Srpska and Knin Krajina, just like during operation "Desert Storm" in southern Iraq in 1991, says Dr. Stankovic.

According to his statements, official precise data on the relationship between the rapid increase of, above all, malignant illnesses in Republika Srpska and the type of weaponry that NATO used during the bombing, is not yet available. Unofficially, however, we learned that the report by the Yugoslav Expert committee confirmed that the Allied aviation used radioactive projectiles; and due to the strictly confidential nature of this information, that document is unavailable to the public.

When asked why official Belgrade sources and the ruling heads of Republika Srpska are silent about this, Stankovic hopelessly shrugs his shoulders, stating that by not recognizing or marginalizing the problem, it is in effect a defense against responsibility.

He, however, announces that at the end of November he will, with the help of his colleagues (medical specialists of different backgrounds), begin research aiming to confirm the now hypothetical relationship between different manifestations of the radioactive syndrome and the weaponry which the Allied military forces -- whose members are pro-democracy oriented and very sensitive to questions of human and minority rights -- experimented with on the Serbian soldiers and civilians in Bosnia and Croatia. The first results of this painstaking research, which, according to Dr. Stankovic's statements, is motivated solely by humanitarian and professional conscience, and whose financial basis is still uncertain, will be known at the latest by March of next year.

He emphasizes that precise data would enable the leadership in Republika Srpska to start an inquiry into NATO's responsibility, and to request material compensation for the victims of the bombings.

The president of the Council of the New Green Party, Branka Jovanovic, who in the past two years has publicly warned of the tragic and long term consequences of using radioactive weapons in Bosnia, told NIN that Republika Srpska "is probably just another experimental region where the U.S.A. used nuclear projectiles."

As support for this thesis she cites a recent public admittance by the assistant U.S. Secretary of Defense Kenneth Bacon, who confirmed in a Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun that during a military exercise on the island Torisima near Okinawa "there occurred an incident, and by mistake 1520 radioactive projectiles were fired." Bacon explained that weakened uranium (U-235 and U-236), in spite of confirmed radioactivity, is used because of its hard alloy in the penetrable armor of the projectile.

According to Bacon's statement, after this incident created waves in the Japanese media, the bombs were transferred to South Korea, and later to the American naval base in Guam. Not a single Pentagon official, however, has denied the claim that the warehouse of nuclear projectiles has still not been transferred from the Japanese military base of Iwakuni Yamagushi, even though this was demanded by the local officials.

Jovanovic states that in June of this year Mainichi Shimbun published results of a research study done by the American military institute AFRI, which says that bombs containing weakened uranium cause cancer. The military institutes GOA and AEPRL simultaneously warned that the use of these weapons directly endangers the soldiers who handle them. Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark confirmed to the Japanese newspaper that after using radioactive projectiles in southern Iraq, which he characterized as a crime, a rise in the cases of leukemia, cancer and tumors in children were recorded.

Jovanovic also says that another indication is the unambiguous warning to members of SFOR in Bosnia not to drink local water and not to touch grass or earth with their hands.

In light of the listed data a question can be imposed: who should, actually, stand in front of the face of justice at the Hague Tribunal?