From: "Janet M Eaton" <•••@••.•••> Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 16:33:43 +0000 Subject: [GSN] UN Denies NATO bombing led to ecological catastrophe !! 2 Items From: "Janet M Eaton" <•••@••.•••> 2 news releases + commentary !! Over 80 news releases, articles, reports that I have reviewed and referenced and another 11 being prepared for Ecological Catstrophe [7] would suggest that the UN Teams' downplaying of the Ecological Catastrophe might well be an understatement of the situation !! And to call Pancevo, Novi Sad, Nis and other industrial centers "hotspots" is to minimize the nature of a great ecological disaster which has created all manner of immediately manifest and horrendous human health consequences the ultimate implications of which will not be known for a few years to come. Imagine if you were Tamara Radjenovic a 32 year old Pancevo teacher watching your five year old daughter playing in a park and every few minutes she came to you to rest , gasping for air --- and you had just read that the world should rest assured that there is no ecological catastrophe in Yugoslavia - just a few "hot spots" like Pancevo where immediate action has to take place - but which, by the way, were highly contaminated anyway before the bombings !! Just imagine how you would feel having already endured the banal NATO propaganda technique of wrapping complicated transgressions into simplistic phrases that assuage the conscience of a mesmerized public - phrases like "humanitarian intervention", and " collateral damage " - to find that a devastating black cloud full of noxious and toxic chemcials which has left its mark already in the lungs and ailing, perhaps dying, body of your dearest child has now been relegated to a "hot spot" in a country with few environmental woes all in all !!!!! I can imagine that Tamara might well feel like a helpless and hapless pawn in some far off wayward game where one's life-sustaining environment and indeed one's right to live have been violated by wanton and reckless wrangling of wheelers and dealers and wielders of the power in the New World Order - all the best, janet ======================================= 1] New York Times July 28, 1999 Team Finds NATO Bombing Left Few Environment Woes By STEVEN ERLANGER 2] http://www.telegraph.co.uk. Telegraph, July 28, 1999 UN denies bombing led to pollution catastrophe By David Graves in Pancevo ============================================ New York Times July 28, 1999 Team Finds NATO Bombing Left Few Environment Woes By STEVEN ERLANGER BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- A United Nations environmental team has found no evidence of a major ecological catastrophe in Yugoslavia as a result of NATO's bombing war, its leader said Tuesday. But he urged the West to provide immediate aid to help clean up significant "hot spots" of war-related pollution. In a news conference to discuss preliminary findings from the 10-day inspection visit, Pekka Haavisto, a former Finnish environment minister and chairman of the U.N.'s Balkan Task Force, said: "We talk about chosen hot spots where immediate action has to take place, but not about a major ecocide or country-wide catastrophe." Still, he said, environmental damage in heavily bombed industrial towns like Pancevo, Kragujevac and Bor needed immediate attention to protect the health of ordinary citizens, and added, when asked, that the West should help. Mercury released by the bombing of industrial targets is contaminating Pancevo. And in Kragujevac, where the Zastava car factory was bombed, there are high levels of PCBs. In Bor, the problem is acid rain, which could be affecting areas beyond Yugoslavia. One of the most difficult problems the team faced, Haavisto said, was distinguishing between pre-existing environmental damage in Yugoslavia -- an Eastern European country that has had nine years of economic sanctions -- and damage caused by the war. In Pancevo, for instance, where a major petrochemical factory, a refinery and a fertilizer factory were bombed repeatedly, mercury lies in pools and should be cleaned up even before any other effort is made at reconstruction, he said. When asked if it was safe to eat fish from the Danube, he hesitated, saying that local officials had lifted a ban on river fish and that they were honest in their assessments. Still, he said, he would not let fishing continue in a mile-long channel near Pancevo where effluent from the three factories enters the river. "We found very dangerous chemicals there," he said. "But how dangerous it is to the whole Danube we cannot say." Existing cleaning mechanisms were overwhelmed by the water used to try to put out the fires and by the lack of electricity or chemical supplies, he said. Haavisto said the original state of environmental pollution in Pancevo was high, though the bombing had worsened it. The effects of the "black rain" in Pancevo, when burning factory fires sent pollutants and chemicals into the air, had now passed, he said. "We've had some very worrying findings, but in some sites where there was a lot of worry we found nothing," he said. He said the initial findings did not show an increased level of radioactivity from any bombs containing depleted uranium, as was feared. But he noted there might be other consequences from trace elements that still need to be examined. And in Nis, for example, local fears about depleted uranium and the leakage of PCB's into the ground and ground water proved unfounded, he said. In Bor, at a copper factory, the problems are worsened by a lack of electricity to run equipment that would stabilize sulfur or run pumping stations, and so sulfur dioxide is being emitted into the air, causing acid rain and likely traveling across borders. NATO countries are divided on how much and what kind of help to provide Yugoslavia. The United States has refused to consider any reconstruction aid while President Slobodan Milosevic is in power, saying it will provide only relief assistance. The European Union is urging broader aid to repair the electrical system before the winter. But Washington has begun to discuss how to get aid to individual cities, especially those run by the opposition to Milosevic, and Pancevo and Kragujevac both are opposition-run. In general, Haavisto danced carefully around the political issues, stressing that the report of the U.N. team would be given to Secretary-General Kofi Annan in about a month, after more detailed laboratory tests and evaluation. Haavisto said that the Yugoslav authorities were helpful and the team, which also went to Novi Sad, Kraljevo, and Prahavo, visited any site he chose except for those in Kosovo where land mines remain. Predrag S. Polic, a chemistry professor at Belgrade University, praised the team for its dedication and patience. "There is a lot of anxiety and emotions because of the war and a lot of fear about health, and I hope things will improve," he said. "The hot spots are very bad, but large areas are only temporarily affected." Given Yugoslavia's climate, with wind, rain, rivers and vegetation, "self-purification here is good," Polic said. "It's not like Iraq." Related Sites These sites are not part of The New York Times on the Web, and The Times has no control over their content or availability. United Nations. <><><><><><><> http://www.telegraph.co.uk. Telegraph, July 28, 1999 UN denies bombing led to pollution catastrophe By David Graves in Pancevo YUGOSLAV government claims that it faces an environmental catastrophe caused by Nato bombing were rejected by the United Nations yesterday. It said several areas of severe pollution had existed before the bombing began. Some had been worsened by the bombing of industrial areas where toxic waste needed to be treated urgently. This should be included in a programme of humanitarian aid that the West had agreed to give to Belgrade, the UN said. The main areas of damage were found at the Pancevo industrial complex, 10 miles from Belgrade, and in Kragujevac, where the Zastava car factory was bombed, said scientists from the UN Environment Programme. Sulphur dioxide was leaking into the atmosphere from a copper plant at Bor because of a shortage of electricity and could cause acid rain in neighbouring countries, they added. But the pollution had started before the bombing and had only been worsened by it. The 17-strong UN team, which includes two Britons, spent 10 days carrying out tests at oil refineries, chemical plants and factories hit by Nato to see what, if any, long-term environmental damage had been caused. Soil and water samples were analysed for toxic compounds such as dioxins and PCBs at mobile laboratories the team had taken to Yugoslavia or removed for longer-term analysis by UN scientists outside the country. Nato's strategy of bombing 80 civilian industrial sites to deny the Yugoslav Army fuel and other vital logistical support led to widespread panic among people living nearby about toxic fumes and poisoned rivers. President Slobodan Milosevic's government had claimed the country had suffered severe environmental damage. Since the conflict ended last month, doctors have advised some pregnant women to have abortions and local people have complained of developing unexplained rashes and blisters after contact with contaminated soil. In several towns people used homemade gas masks to protect themselves from air pollution and claimed rain had been turned black by huge clouds of toxic smoke. Health officials in Pancevo claimed that after a Nato raid on the complex on April 18 a toxic cloud so dense and potentially lethal was released that could affect local people for decades to come. At a press conference yesterday, Pekka Haavisto, the former Finnish environment minister, who led the UN mission, said that final scientific results would not be available until the end of August, but preliminary indications were that "a major catastrophe" had not occurred. He said his team had encountered difficulties in establishing the environmental history of most industrial plants because detailed reports were not available, but from its tests the UN scientists had discovered there had been widespread soil and water pollution at Pancevo before the bombing. Many hazardous substances had also been found in a waste water channel near the complex, which could leak into the River Danube. "We were told that people living near the plant had complained of what they called 'Pancevo cancer' well before the bombing and there were concerns among health officials of the high incidence of liver cancer in the area," he said. "There is no doubt that the treatment of toxic waste was not very good before the conflict at many industrial plants in the country and, in some cases, the bombing has worsened the environmental damage and there have been some very worrying findings. There are disturbing hot spots at Pancevo and Kragujevac." The Pancevo complex had contained an oil refinery, petrochemical plant and a fertiliser factory. Mr Haavisto said that, despite concern raised by the Yugoslav government that Nato had used missile warheads containing depleted uranium, his scientists had found no increased levels of radioactivity anywhere in the country. He added that while he accepted the issue of who had caused the pollution --- Nato or the Yugoslavs --- was a "highly political question," the consequences remained the same for the local population and urgent remedial work needed to be taken in some cases. A separate UN study on the impact of the bombing on pollution in the Danube, the Balkan region's biological diversity and on human health will start next month. Other UN environment experts will also travel to Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania. <><><><><><><><> --------------------------- ONElist Sponsor ---------------------------- ONElist announces "FRIENDS & FAMILY!" 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