SARAJEVO, Nov 11 (Hina) - United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) experts have found traces of depleted uranium on three locations in Bosnia-Herzegovina whose radiation and toxicity may pose a threat to people's health.
SARAJEVO, Nov 11 (Hina) - United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) experts have found traces of depleted uranium on three
locations in Bosnia-Herzegovina whose radiation and toxicity may
pose a threat to people's health. #L#
The traces have been found in the Sarajevo suburb of Hadzici and a
Bosnian Serb army barracks in Han-Pijesak on the Romanija mountain,
Finland's Pekka Haavisto, who headed the UNEP team, told reporters
in Sarajevo on Monday.
All the locations inspected by the UN team were Bosnian Serb targets
in NATO air strikes in 1995.
Following NATO's strikes on Yugoslav targets in 1999, Bosnian Serb
authorities accused NATO of having used ammunition with depleted
uranium and causing lasting damage to the environment and an
increase in cancer among the local population.
Although depleted uranium dust has been found on only three Bosnian
locations, UNEP experts have taken some 200 samples of soil, water,
and air from all over Bosnia which will be analysed in Great Britain
and Italy in the coming months. A final report on the danger to the
environment will be published in March 2003.
UNEP has called on local authorities to decontaminate the
facilities in Hadzici and Han-Pijesak.
Bosnia's Deputy Minister of Civil Issues and Communications, Milan
Lovric, has announced the measures will be taken at once. He has
also stated that the situation is not particularly dramatic.
The issue of depleted uranium in Bosnia is much smaller than in
Kosovo or Serbia, where more than 100 locations were hit with
ammunition containing the substance during NATO's air raids in
1999.
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