Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-02-12-Speech-3-218"
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"en.20030212.7.3-218"2
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"Mr President, depleted uranium was largely used in the manufacture of shells and anti-tank ammunition, many of which were dumped during the Gulf War on Iraqi territory, but also in Bosnia and Kosovo.
On impact, the uranium is broken up into fine particles which are likely to be inhaled by human beings, or else they are dispersed into the environment where, owing to the effect of the wind, they can become suspended, and inhaled later.
These particles emit alpha-radioactivity, which is particularly aggressive towards living tissue. Depleted uranium particles, once lodged inside an organism, may cause severe damage to the health not only of military personnel but of civilians as well.
It seems clear to me, therefore, that depleted uranium weapons and ammunition fall directly within the scope of the 1980 United Nations Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects.
The UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights came to this conclusion several years ago, yet so far no action has been taken to restrict or prohibit them. Scientific uncertainty about their measurable effects on health is thus being used as an argument for doing nothing. The precautionary principle, however, would seem to argue in favour of an additional protocol to the 1980 Convention, explicitly prohibiting these depleted uranium weapons. This is what my group is seeking.
Last week we were in Iraq, and at the hospital in Basra we were shocked and saddened to see children suffering from cancer and congenital malformations. The figures published by the University of Basra for the region are shocking. Between 1990 and 2001, the rate of congenital malformations has been constantly rising, and has now increased sevenfold. Scientists are quite logically blaming this on the fact that parents are contaminated with depleted uranium.
We do not have the right to allow such situations, which are the consequences of real war crimes, to proliferate. Yet in Afghanistan, contrary to the official denials, even more powerful weapons were used, weapons equipped with a covering of depleted uranium or even natural uranium. These were guided bombs or cruise missiles.
I believe that it is up to the European Union to take the initiative to halt the current escalation and to set targets with a view to the definitive prohibition of weapons which, like cluster bombs and anti-personnel mines, are morally unacceptable."@en1
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