NATO\u2019s use of depleted uranium munitions in its air war against Yugoslavia was a \u201chorrible and inhumane experiment\u201d against the entire region, Serbian Health Minister Danica Grujicic has said. Contamination from these munitions led to a surge in cancer, autoimmune disease, and infertility, Grujicic added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NATO used 10 metric tons of depleted uranium \u2013 which is used to make the hardened cores of armor-piercing projectiles \u2013 during its 1999 air campaign against Yugoslavia, the bloc admitted in a report a year afterwards. Although the report stated that depleted uranium poses \u201cpractically no danger” when ingested or absorbed through wounds, evidence from Serbia suggests otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRadiation exists at that moment when the explosion occurs, [and] after that the nanoparticles do the work,\u201d Grujicic told Serbia\u2019s RTS television network on Saturday. These particles \u201center your lungs, digestive tract, kidneys, and then you can expect at any moment that one alpha particle, which is 50 times more carcinogenic than any other, will come out of one atom of depleted uranium in your body and turn a normal cell into a malignant one,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grujicic said that Serbian physicians began noticing a surge in leukemia and lymphoma cases seven years after the bombing campaign, and have since recorded increases in oncological diseases, pathological pregnancies, autoimmune diseases, mental disorders in children, and infertility in men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US asks Serbs to \u2018set aside\u2019 grievances over bombings
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\u201cIt was an ugly and inhumane experiment on the entire region, not only Serbia and Montenegro,\u201d she said. \u201cI hope that the international scientific community will understand that it should be investigated in a scientific way and that weapons with depleted uranium will be banned.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grucijic has long called for an international inquiry into NATO\u2019s use of depleted uranium. \u201cIt is essential that the citizens of Serbia know how much and what kind of damage they suffered,\u201d the former neurosurgeon told local media in 2016, pointing out that 5,500 out of every 100,000 Serbs suffer from some kind of carcinoma, a rate nearly three times the global average.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The UK announced earlier this month that it plans to supply Ukraine with depleted uranium shells for use with British-provided Challenger 2 battle tanks. The Russian Defense Ministry warned that these shells would \u201ccause irreparable harm\u201d to soldiers and civilians alike, and Russian President Vladimir Putin responded on Saturday by announcing that Russia would move some of its tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus this summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n