Germans Urge NATO to Ban Low-uranium WeaponsSome German politicians, scientists and military officers on January 5 called on NATO to ban the use of low-uranium ammunition and to include civilians in probes into the effect of such weapons.The call followed reports that a number of Italian soldiers stationed in Kosovo, Yugoslavia, died of cancer and their deaths were blamed on contamination from low-uranium bombs that NATO used in air raids against Yugoslavia two years ago. Angelika Beer, a Green Party politician, accused NATO of cover- up with the excuse of military secrecy, the German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported. She demanded the German government push for a ban on the uranium ammunition at next Tuesday's meeting of NATO senior officials. Wolfgang Koehnlein, vice president of the radio-active protection commission of the federal government, said that it is " false" that NATO claims the uranium-contained ammunition is safe to the soldiers, said the report. Karl Demmer, inspector of Medical Service of Bundeswehr (German Defense Force), said the areas bombed with Uranium ammunition should be marked out and the effect on civilians there be investigated. Meanwhile, the main opposition party Christian Democratic Union (CDU), in response to the defense ministry's claim that no German solders suffered from uranium weaponry, accused the government of being incomplete in investigating the effect of uranium weapons on German soldiers. The government only investigated 160 soldiers out of thousands of German servicemen sent to the Balkan region, and examined only their urine instead of checking organs, the CDU said. But the government refused the charges and insisted that its method of investigation was sound. |
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