DEMINING TEAM TO UNDERGO MEDICAL CHECK-UP FOR "BALKAN SYNDROME"

ZAGREB, Jan 8 (Hina) - Thirty employees of the Croatian mine- clearing company "Mungos" will undergo a medical check-up on January 17, head of the Rebro clinic, Damir Dodig, said Monday. The thirty who cleared mines in Yugoslavia's province of Kosovo from July to October 1999 in line with an agreement with an American mine-clearing company "Ronco", have been sent for check-ups to see whether there is any danger of any of them becoming victim of the so- called Balkan Syndrome -- a type of leukaemia caused by depleted uranium. The test will check for the presence of radioactivity in their organisms, whether the level of radioactive substances are such as to cause no harm to health, or whether internal decontamination is necessary, Dodig explained. Deputy Mungos management president Zeljko Zuljevic said none of the employees had yet shown any signs of contamination which would point to the Balkan syndrome. The case of the Balkan syndrome surfaced some ten days ago after Italian newspapers wrote about several Italian soldiers who had taken part in military missions in the Balkans dying from leukaemia caused by depleted uranium. This was followed by a panic about the illness which spread to other NATO-member countries. The NATO had used ammunition with depleted uranium for the first time during the Gulf War in 1991, and then in military operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. (hina) lml