Depleted Uranium Contamination: A Crime against Humanity

Arun Shrivastava | Global Research

This article is part of a longer essay on Depleted Uranium weapons, nuclear reactors and their environmental health impacts.

In this article the long term consequences of radiation contamination from unilateral aggression of the US and NATO countries on South and West Asia are discussed. Afpak region is being bombed daily and the cold blooded murder of nine kids out of the seventeen killed is just a small blip when billions are done in.

The world needs a public trial of political leaders for war crimes and genocide. 

Depleted Uranium or DU [1] encased bombs that have been used since 1991 by US and NATO forces knowing well that the use of DU weapons is illegal being weapons of mass destruction [WMD] and amounts to War Crimes. These weapons were used in Gulf War 1 against Iraq, then in the Balkans and later, after 9/11 events, in Afghanistan, Iraq, North Africa, Libya and now being used in Drone bombings in Pakistan.

“When 20 years ago I stated at the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro that a species was in danger of extinction, I had fewer reasons than today for warning about a danger that I was seeing perhaps 100 years away.” Fidel Castro Ruz – March 21, 2012

Area Deniability Weapon

‘Depleted Uranium’ has nothing depleted about it: when this potent hard metal hits a solid surface like concrete or a battle tank, the temperature at the point of impact reaches over 40000C and turns the projectile into uranium oxide gas. These gases are picked up by the wind and carried all over the world creating vast areas of secondary contamination. Based on the population within the contamination map [Map 1], over 35% of India’s population received a heavy dosing of DU aerosolized uranium nano particles within months of the start of Afghan and Iraq wars. [2]

Photo Courtesy: URUKNET (http://www.uruknet.de/?p=64441)

The total estimated population within the two circles is nearly a billion. [3] ‘The capitals of 19 countries are within 1000 mile radius and include New Delhi (621 miles), Islamabad (232), Bishkek (651), Beirut (515), Cairo (806), Ankara (785), Jerusalem (546), Damascus (468), Kuwait City (347), Nicosia (643), Teheran (429), Abu Dhabi (856), Amman (503), Riyadh (615), Ashgabat (645) and so on.’ [3] Countries like India, Pakistan, Nepal, Afghanistan, Iraq, and some Central Asian States do not even have well established, dependable cancer screening facilities, let alone determining whether the illness is due to depleted uranium contamination or careless handling of toxic pesticides in the farms as was fobbed off by a very ‘respectable’ Indian environmental group. If you think that the population of contaminated regions has gone up, think again; it may have dropped significantly and not even India conducts honest Census operation. Asia, Europe and North Africa are slowly becoming sterile; the only virile bastards are those very leaders who screw 4 or 5 year old boys and girls, white boys and girls, often kidnapped by their own police. [4]

The total land area of earth is about 57.3 million square mile, which implies that roughly 8% of total land area is now contaminated. Add another 6-8% of the landmass within 1000 mile radius of Bosnia, Kosovo, Libya, and Sudan and you can guess that the entire West, Central and South Asia, half of Northern Africa and almost entire Europe is contaminated with DU aerosolized nano particles. While the spineless idiots in bureaucracy, foreign services, and the army worldwide are merrily radioactive, those “dumb stupid” soldiers from US and NATO forces are dying. Even the Indian armed forces are using these lethal weapons and they won’t even know why they died in peacetime. According to one report DU weapons have been sold to 27 countries and India is one of them.