Mirjana N. Anđelković-Lukić
Military Technical Institute, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia;
Government of the Republic of Serbia, Interagency Coordination Body, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia
Results: The use of ammunition with 238U depleted uranium, with added plutonium, pollutes the environment, water, and soil in the long term, causing various disorders and diseases, primarily malignant ones. The radioactivity of 239Pu, compared to its toxicity, is several thousand times higher and the inhalation of plutonium dust is harmful and causes cancer. Uranium is a pyrophoric metal, toxic, radioactive and easy to ignite. Its oxides are toxic and partially soluble in water. After ignition, the round releases radioactive aerosol particles which burn in contact with the air causing short or long term damage wheninhaled. In Kosovo and Metohia, a large amount of radioactivity was measured during the NATO aggression against the FR Yugoslavia. In Metohia, radioactivity was 1,100 times that of natural background radiation.
Conclusion: During the war, the Army of the FR Yugoslavia was exposed to high radioactive doses, so that among the members of the army after the war there was an increased incidence of various malignancies, many of them lethal.
IntroductionThe 78-day NATO aggression on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in March 1999 represents one of the most shameful pages in the history of international relations and the modern-day civilization of the second half of the 20th century. It is a crime against peace, human health and the environment. It caused an increase in various malignancies, difficulty in conceiving, sterility,the number of miscarriages, thyroid diseases, and an increased occurrence of asthma in children as well as in the elderly.
The use of ammunition with depleted uranium caused a large increase in various malignancies after the war, and thus the number of deaths in the FR Yugoslavia during the aggression can be added to the number of deaths which is increasing daily, since in most cases they died from radiation.
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a great tragedy was caused by depleted uranium (DU) rounds (uranium depleted in 235U isotope), fired from Gatling-type guns ofthe A-10 aircraft. Number of uranium depleted rounds fired on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia The countries that directly attacked FR Yugoslavia were 228 times larger than the FR Yugoslavia, had 67 times bigger population, their economic potential exceeded that of Yugoslavia by 679 times, and they were 37 times more technically superior. The exact number of fired DU rounds will never be known, because NATO, and above all the USA, keep this information secret; they do not want to admit how many missiles they fired, as it would show that they had genocidal intentagainst the Serbian (but also the Albanian) people. There are three reports on the amount of depleted uranium ammunitionused during the 1999 aggression on the FR Yugoslavia:
- The first report is the one compiled by NATO, which states the number of 31,000 missiles.
- The second is the report of the Army of the FR Yugoslavia, according to which about 50,000 pieces of DU ammunition were fired, and
- The third is from Russian sources which estimate that about 90,000 DU missiles were fired in the territory of FR Yugoslavia. Most DU rounds targeted the territories of Kosovo and Metohia and southern Serbia.
The data collected by the FRY Army and the NATO data can be summarized as follows: a total of 112 air strikes with DU ammunition occurred at 91 locations, 12 strikes at 9 locations in the Republic of Serbia, 2 strikes at one location in the Republic of Montenegro and 98 strikes at 81 locations in Kosovo and Metohia.
...it is important to note that a total of 49 strikes (or 44%) of the DU ammunition attacks were carried out after the agreement had been reached to end the aggression, in the last 10 days of the war (Jovanovićet al, 2012). Depleted uranium was used not only in 30 mm rounds but also in cruise missiles (with 300 kg stabilizer rods).
Full paper:
http://www.vtg.mod.gov.rs/arhiva/2020/vojnotehnicki-glasnik-2-2020-1.pdf (pages 143-157)