IT is astonishing to me that only now is there concern at the military use of depleted uranium. It has been common knowledge for the last 50 years that uranium in any form was potentially lethal.
The people of Iraq have been devastated by Nato's casual use of this commodity for 20 years. The US alone fired 850,000 depleted uranium rounds in the first phase of the campaign against Iraq. It is still routinely bombing Iraq ten years later.
In 1998 a World Health Organisation report on Iraq found a huge increase in cancer rates, especially childhood leukaemia. Western journalists visiting Iraq report horrendous deformities in new-born babies. US sanctions on the Iraqi people mean that they are denied the basic medication that might ease a little of their suffering.
R Westmoreland,
The Oval,
Pocklington.
Updated: 10:42 Tuesday, January 23, 2001
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