Uranium And Plutonium Killing Residents Of Serb Sarajevo
According to information uncovered by Patriot 1,226 patients with malignant tumors were registered in this hospital from 1995 to 2001; 370 of them have died. "Also released during the explosion of the alloy used to manufacture such ammunition, like from Pandora's box, were various other toxic substances, including free plutonium particles. We know that plutonium is used to manufacture the atomic bomb. It is a catastrophic agent, an exceptionally carcinogenic radiation source which causes immediate malignant growth if introduced into the organism in any form," said Dr. Guzina
By Zoran ZUZA
Patriot, Banja Luka, Srpska, B-H, July 22, 2002
A few years ago when British scientist Roger Coghill, who headed comprehensive research on the effects of using depleted uranium ammunition, made the frightening prognosis that about 10,000 persons in the Balkans would die from malignant tumors, few people took him seriously. Also dismissed as part of a "conspiracy theory" against NATO was research conducted by Italian scientists after several dozen soldiers from countries serving in Bosnia-Hercegovina and Kosovo died from leukemia or other malignant illnesses. "Just one breath at the moment of explosion is enough for DU to enter the body. Danger also exists in a contaminated environment from contaminated food and water but this process is slower. The first symptoms manifest themselves in one to five years," warned Massimo Giani, a hematologist from the National Cancer Institute in Milano. Sick military minds, which continue to produce DU ammunition today and give orders for its use, long ago declared these humanitarian scientists to be lunatics standing in the way of earning millions of dollars and subjugating small peoples.
Frightening Proof
Where is the proof for the claims of these two scientists? It can be found in Bratunac, where the Serb population, originally from the Sarajevo suburb of Hadzici, a proving ground for the excesses of NATO bombers in 1995, continues to die from malignant illnesses; and in the medical center in Kasindol, where a tremendous increase has been noted in the annual number of cases of malignant illness, as well as the number of deaths. Almost all of the patients are from parts of Serb Sarajevo which were bombed with DU ammunition seven or eight years ago.
Patriot uncovered information at Kasindol Hospital amounting to irrefutable proof of the existence of what became known as "Balkan syndrome" two years ago. According to this information 1,226 patients with malignant tumors were registered in this hospital from 1995 to 2001; 370 of them have died. Entire families from Serbian Sarajevo with no previous family history of cancer are receiving treatment today as a result of the effects of DU. After reviewing the percentages by which malignant illnesses have increased each year, including this one, the situation becomes even more alarming. In comparison with 1995 the number of instances of malignant tumors of lymphatic and blood producing tissues increased by 27.7 percent; tumors of the skin, connecting and soft tissues increased by 50 percent; tumors of the urogenital organs increased by 58.5 percent; tumors of the respiratory organs increased by 64.9 percent, and tumors of the digestive organs increased by a remarkable 109.6 percent.
Professor Dr. Trifko Guzina, surgeon and pre-war director of the urological clinic in Sarajevo, a man who has operated on over 25,000 people from this region before the war, could offer no other explanation for the increase in malignant illnesses except the effects of DU and other toxic materials released after the explosion of DU ammunition. "I have been a surgeon my whole life. Before the war I followed morbidity and mortality rates from all kinds of illnesses in this region. However, I have never seen or recorded such strange pathology. After the appearance of multiple malignant tumors in the same patient in two or three independent organs which were not the result of metastasis of one malignant tumor, it became clear to me that the causal agent must be an external factor. The patients who were suffering from multiple, independent malignant tumors lived in immediate proximity to the bombing sites or were in these areas at the time bombings occurred," said Dr. Guzina in a statement for Patriot.
He said that experts at Kasindol Hospital who compared statistics on the number of patients concluded that 1995 was the first year in which a stunning increase in the number of malignant illnesses in this region became apparent. "The first to become ill and die were those who were most directly exposed to the effects of DU, that is, those who were bombed and those who inhaled air concentrated with toxic particles after an explosion. A large number of the deceased, especially young people, were not registered in this hospital. Some of them died in Bratunac, where former residents of Hadzici have been decimated; others in areas where Sarajevo Serbs fled after the signing of the Dayton Agreement; still others in hospitals in Serbia," said Dr. Guzina.
DU In Food Chain And Water
Explaining why, in his opinion, there is such an increase in the percentage of malignant tumors of the digestive organs, Dr. Guzina warned of the frightening fact that DU has entered the food chain and the water chain. "Two years ago at a press conference in this hospital I warned that we can expect an increase in the number of illnesses of the digestive and urogenital tracts. It is well known that DU is a heavy metal that seeps into the soil; rainfall permits it to enter the soil and contaminate underground waters. This has also been confirmed by the Atomic Commission in Vienna which determined after analyzing the underground waters in this region that there is an increased concentration of DU. Now the time has come when the effects of this poison in the water and food chain have set in and that is why we see the high indices of malignant tumors of digestive organs," said Dr. Guzina.
He is convinced that, in addition to DU, enormous danger to the lives and health of the population of this entire region, including the residents of Sarajevo, is posed by plutonium, which was also released during the explosion of DU ammunition.
"Toxic effects on the human organism first appear as a result of the dust from the explosion in the air. These particles, depending on the wind, spread over a zone of some 40 to 50 kilometers. Moreover, DU is never pure. Also released during the explosion of the alloy used to manufacture such ammunition, like from Pandora's box, were various other toxic substances, including free plutonium particles. We know that plutonium is used to manufacture the atomic bomb. It is a catastrophic agent, an exceptionally carcinogenic radiation source which causes immediate malignant growth if introduced into the organism in any form," said Dr. Guzina.
Criminal Logic
He says that it is extremely difficult to take preventative action against the spread of malignant illnesses in cases such as this one, where they are caused by an external factor whose effects are practically unlimited in duration. "I would recommend that all water lines in this region be immediately equipped with filters which block heavy metals. In addition to this, we also need a mass spectrometer for diagnosis and confirmation of illness in the initial phases. Most of the population of this region should undergo testing, especially those who lived close to the bombing sites. Unfortunately, BH does not have a medical institution with a mass spectrometer nor is there a specialized clinic which would carry out this type of work. The device itself is very expensive. It costs as much as $150,000," said Dr. Guzina.
In response to the reporter's comment that this instrument should be donated by those who sowed DU throughout this region, Dr. Guzina said that in his experience military logic was incompatible with common sense. "I gave several lectures on the results of the effects of DU in this region in Brussels, which is also the home of NATO headquarters. We even took a patient with us on whom we had operated for multiple malignant tumors. They acted as if they knew nothing about it but typically their own soldiers are instructed not to drink the local water. The impression I got, however, was that they did not care about their own soldiers, let alone about the local population. They view this type of ammunition only as an ideal means of destruction, which is a catastrophe for humanity. If people have any grain of conscience, this type of ammunition must not be used ever again," concluded Dr. Guzina in a statement for our paper.
Regardless of the criminal logic of NATO officers and their political bosses and sporadic but failing attempts to prove the harmfulness of the use of DU ammunition and ban its use, the people of Serb Sarajevo are dying.
Leukemia
From 1996 to 2000 18 deaths were recorded in Kasindol Hospital as a result of acute leukemia. Among the deceased were a four year-old boy, a 15 year-old girl, a 16 year-old boy and a 23 year-old young man. As of the end of last year a total of 85 patients in Serbian Sarajevo were suffering from malignant tumors of the lymphatic and blood producing tissues.
Weeping Like Willows
"After the lectures in Brussels, they asked me why the Albanians in Kosovo were not suffering from the same illnesses. I said to wait two to three years and we would see. And now the Albanians in Kosovo are weeping like willows because of the high instance of cancer deaths in Kosovo. Foreign soldiers are also becoming ill and there are some Americans among them, despite the fact that they put their military base in the eastern part of Kosovo, where they conducted the fewest campaigns using DU ammunition. They hide these cases because the soldiers' families could potentially sue the state and recover enormous damages," said Dr. Guzina. He asked the rhetorical question to whom the residents of Serb Sarajevo and this entire region should complain and who they can sue. "Long ago I said that Sarajevo itself would not be spared because it gets its water supply from this region. I told my colleagues this but they did not believe what those of us in Kasindol were telling them. Now they believe us."
Hiding Effects
Zeljko Samardzic, a forest ranger from the Sarajevo area, survived both the NATO bombing and surgical removal of three tumors. A carcinoma from his lower intestine was removed in December 1999. In April 2000 a malignant tumor the size of a tangerine was also removed from his adrenal gland. In May 2000 the fingers of his left hand became deformed. The skin from them began to peel and the fingernails fell off. The physicians diagnosed gangrene and performed an amputation of the fingers of his left hand. Samardzic, who attended the conference on victims of "Balkan syndrome" in Brussels together with physicians of Kasindol Hospital, claims that NATO soldiers suffering from cancer and family members of deceased soldiers have told him that they enjoy full benefits and revenues only while they remain silent. "If a family member files a claim for damages or a complaint about what happened to a NATO soldier, the family loses all rights," said Samardzic.
Italy Lost 17 Soldiers
On Wednesday, July 3 Antonio Milano (23), a soldier who had returned four months earlier from a NATO mission in the Balkans, died in Italy from a malignant tumor. Milano is the 17th member of the Italian NATO contingent on Balkan missions to die of cancer or, as the officials of that country say, "due to unexplained circumstances". The Italian government, namely, continues to rely on surveys by a scientific commission demonstrating that malignant illnesses among soldiers returning from missions in the Balkans are not connected with the use of DU ammunition. Non-government organizations in that country, however, believe that it is urgently necessary to conduct another survey on the pathological illnesses of soldiers who served in the Balkans.
Translated by S. Lazovic (October 9, 2002)
