Yugoslavia's Green Party leader Branka Jovanovic warned in early April that NATO missiles would contaminate the water supply for most of eastern Europe. "I warn you that Serbia is one of the greatest sources of pure, underground waters in all of Europe. Contamination will be felt all the way to the Black Sea." It looks now like her worst fears have become reality.
In Yugoslavia, as in Iraq, depleted uranium was used on the warheads of the detonated bombs. This rendered the land radioactive, and brought on all the bad health consequences of radiation. In Iraq, cancer rates (particularly childhood cancers) have sharply increased since the beginning of the bombing in 1990. Bombing continues in Iraq, with 706 bombing missions in the first two weeks of March 1999, and 82 missions on April 2 alone, according to Ramsey Clark, the former U.S. Attorney General, now a human rights activist and a strong critic of U.S. foreign policy.
* In Grocka, bombs fell on the site of a nuclear reactor and large amounts of nuclear waste. (no US media outlet reported this.)
* In Baric, a large factory for the production of chloride (with similar technology as that of the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India) was bombed repeatedly. "It is not necessary for me to explain what the blowing up of one of such factories would represent," Jovanovic said during the bombings. "Not only Belgrade, but the rest of Europe would be endangered."
* Pancevo, site of a large petrochemical factory and another plant used to produce fertilizers, was bombed at least a dozen times. Workers panicked and dumped tons of ethylene dichloride, a carcinogen, into the Danube river, rather than risk it being blown up. At least three missile strikes later, oil and gas from the smashed refinery flowed into the Danube forming slicks twelve miles long. Temperatures inside the collapsing factory reached 1,000 degrees centigrade. When asked about the hazard from chemical smoke, NATO said that "there was a lot more smoke coming from burning villages."
* A chemical factory was bombed in Belgrade's suburb, Sremcica. A rocket fuel storage area was hit in the same town, pouring toxins onto surrounding land and into the water.
* Four national parks were bombed.
* In Belgrade, when the petrochemical plant was destroyed by bombs, a towering cloud of toxic gas billowed over the city. The airborne, lethal chemical cocktail contained phosgene, chlorine and hydrochloric acid.
The entire Balkans ecosystem is now endangered due to the release of hundreds of toxins into the air, water and soils. New Green Party scientist Luka Radoja said that since the bombing coincided with the planting season, 2.5 million hectares of farmland have not been planted with crops. The lack of fuel for agricultural machines will compound the hunger problem as the catastrophe unfolds. "As an expert who has spent his entire work-age in the fields of this up-till-now ecologically pure part of Europe, I am witness to the disappearing of the most beautiful garden of Europe," Radoja said.
The effects of the war in Yugoslavia were documented by the Alternative Academy Educational Network and reported by Jeremy Skahill on Pacifica Radio's national program, "Democracy Now." Some of the bombing targets reported:
* 384 schools; 45 of them kindergartens. (It is also important to note that many were bombed repeatedly.)
* 23 Health institutions
* 17 monasteries
* 15 churches
* 5,700 people are known to have been killed by NATO bombings. Many more are missing. 15,000 people are injured. 7,000 are handicapped.
* 150,000 are jobless.
An estimated $29 billion damage has set the stage for even more suffering as the consequences of the collapsing of infrastructure become clearer over time.
The United Nations Population Fund has sent emergency reproductive health kits to Kosovo. These kits include contraceptive material and equipment which can be used for abortions. According to National Public Radio news reports, women in Kosovo are being advised by health officials not to get pregnant or to have an abortion if they are pregnant, due to concerns about birth defects caused by bombs with depleted uranium and the release of toxins from the bombing of chemical factories.
Cluster bombs contain hundreds of small explosive devices that are spread over a wide radius as the bomb nears the earth. Many of the small bombs do not explode upon impact, becoming land mines. Hundreds of thousands of these devices and other unexploded bombs now cover Kosovo and other parts of Yugoslavia. (Land mines accounted for one-third of the U.S. deaths in Viet Nam.) According to Pacifica Radio, doctors in the region now report an average of five hospital admissions per day of civilians with serious wounds caused by land mines.
Bombing and burning of oil facilities has other serious environmental consequences. In Iraq, the smoke from the burning oil wells blocked the sunlight over Kuwait, causing daytime temperatures to drop as much as fifteen degrees centigrade. Soot-laden and highly acidic rain was deposited over much of the region as well, affecting crops, animals, and water reservoirs.
Besides the smoke from burning oil, the oil itself has well known consequences on aquatic life; an estimated 20,000 wading sea birds died from the released oil in Kuwait.
Opinion on the recent NATO bombing of Kosovo and other parts of Yugoslavia varies, even among "progressives." Responding to atrocities committed against any group of people is an action few people would dispute. The question that must be raised is this: How is it appropriate to drop massive numbers of bombs on both the aggressors and the victims, and leave the land on which they live poisoned and booby-trapped? Kosovo has been referred to as the most dangerous place in the world since the bombing. Given the short and long term effects of NATO's action, one must question the rationale of this "rescue."
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 1999
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited