by Sharon Eoilis (New York)

Imagine tons of bombs dropping on the city where you live. Bombs falling on the daycare center, elementary school, and university your children attend. Bombs hitting the hospital where your spouse works. As you leave your job at the water processing plant, a cluster bomb hits your leg and explodes. If you lived in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the 78 days of US/NATO bombardment, this could have happened to your family.

NATO launched over 7000 tons of explosives, killing thousands of Yugoslav civilians and wounding thousands more.

NATO launched over 10 thousand attacks in March and April 1999. Many hospitals and health care institutions were partially damaged or totally destroyed, including:

Neuro-psychiatric ward "Dr Laza Lazarevic and central pharmacy of the emergency center in Belgrade
"Sveti Sava" Hospital in Belgrade
Army Medical Academy in Belgrade
Gynecological Hospital and Maternity ward of the clinical center in Belgrade
Health Care Center in Rakovia
Hospital and Medical Center in Leskovac
Gerontology Center in Leskovac
Hospital and Polyclinic in Nis
General Hospital in Djakovica
City Hospital in Novi Sad
Medical Center and Ambulance Center in Aleksinac
Medical Center in Kraljevo
Dispensary in Mount Zlatibor City Hospital in Valjevo
Dispensary "Krusik" in Valjevo
Hospital for treatment of dystrophy in Novi Pazar
Health Care Center in Kursumlija

This is only a partial list of the health care facilities suffering NATO bombing damage. (1)

Other war crimes committed against the civilian population included bombardment of factories, apartment blocks; schools, daycare centers, water systems, electrical grids, and radio and TV centers.

When the bridge over the Sava River connecting Novi Sod with Pertropvaridn was bombed, the water supply system built into the bridge was also destroyed. This left 600,00 residents without water. NATO’s destruction of bridges deprived tap water to over one million.(2)

At the edge of the town of Pancevo, there was a large industrial area with an oil refinery, a petrol chemical complex and a fertilizer plant. This complex was an important resource for Kosovo. It became a strategic target for U.S./NATO’s missiles and bombs. A few seconds after the bombs exploded, huge clouds of poisonous gas filled the sky, contaminating the air, water and soil. Farm workers who plunged their hands in the earth came away with rashes and blisters. People who ate fish from the river or drank from the trickle of water in the tap developed vomiting, diarrhea and stomach cramps. According to a physician in the area, there have been twice as many miscarriages as during the same period last year.(4)

Simon Bancov, the government health inspector for the region, said "more than 100,000 tons of carcinogens were unleashed in the air water and soil…. We have all been poisoned." (5)

NATO’s air strikes to destroy Yugoslavia’s infrastructure unleashed millions of tons of poisonous chemicals. An estimated 1,500 tons of vinyl chloride, an element in plastic (3000 times higher then permitted levels) burned in the air or went into the earth and river according to a Pancevo municipal official.(6)

Other chemicals included an estimated 15,000 tons of ammonia, 800 tons of hydrochloric acid, 250 tons of liquid chlorine, 100 tons of mercury, and vast quantities of dioxin (a compound in Agent Orange, a defoliant). (7)

The U.S. military used Agent Orange extensively during its war against Vietnam to destroy crops and to deny ground cover to the resistance. It seeped into the soil and the food chain, causing infertility, birth defects and other disorders to this day.

A NATO official in Mons, Belgium said "NATO had two types of targets….they were tactical and strategic targets….the oil refinery in Pancevo was considered a strategic target. It was a key installation that provided petrol and other elements to support the Yugoslav army….by cutting off their supplies we denied critical support to the Serbian forces fighting in Kosovo….When targeting is done we take into account all possible collateral damage….be it environmental, human or to civilian infrastructure….Pancevo was considered a strategic target…" (8) In other words, this attack was considered by the US/NATO forces to be an appropriate action, not a war crime against humanity.

Pakka Haavisto, who was the enviromental minister to Findland headed up ;the U.N. enviroment program formed a Balkin task force to visit Kosovo. Beforethe visit he said "the most dangerous moment probabley occurred during the time when the smoke was in the air"....a large amount of the chemicals burned durring this time......the biggest danger now is that the ground water and the Danube have been directly poluted". "The most damaged sites will need a cleaning process where the soil and water have been contaminated with toxic materials...before rebuilding"

After Pakka Haavista, chairman of the Balkin Task Force visited Yugoslavia, he reported that the team found "no evidence of a major ecological catastrophe to Yugoslavia as a result of NATO's bombing war" he added " in Panevo a heavily bombed industrial area need s immediate attention. to protect the health of ordinary citizens. Mercury, released during the bombings is laying in pools." This is contaminationg the soil and water.

It has been reported that a hundred tons of mercury was released as a result of the bombings.

In the U.S. , less then an ounce of mercury the amount that would spill out of a broken blood pressure machine is considered a toxic spill and must be reported to a federal enviromental agency

Before the US/NATO invasion of Yugoslavia, the country had a nationalized health care system similar to the Canadian plan. Health care was planned to meet the needs of the population. This included prevention, intervention for medical and surgical disorders, as well as the sophisticated technology and training to do liver transplants.

Contrast this to the US, the only industrialized nation in the world that has no national health care system. It has the most developed medical industrial complex in the world, yet millions of people have no access to health care. In the US, health care is organized for profit, not for humans.

In Kosovo, the health care system has been mutilated by war crimes. In the midst of the devastation, health care workers have made a valiant effort to provide emergency care to the wounded. This has been done in spite of the damage to the hospitals, electricity, water and equipment.

In the coming winter months, the people are faced with the immediate problems of safe drinking water, shelter, heating and food. The health system will be required not only to care for the wounded, but to manage the care of a population drinking contaminated water and food which leads to dysentery. Lack of shelter and heat lead to an epidemic of acute respiratory infections.

Thus far the direct and immediate health crisis has been addressed but the larger crime against humanity is the incalculable long term damage to the environment, the people and the generations unborn.

According to Dr Michio Kaku over 350 tons of depleted uranium were fired in the Gulf War. It affected the people of Iraq and the GIs returned with what is known as Gulf Syndrome. In the south Western part of the US, Native Americans have been ravaged with illness and death from DU. This is what we know about the damage from DU in the US and Iraq where untold numbers of people have and are continuing to die from this poisoning. In Kosovo, the devestation is more complex because of the tons of chemicals spilled into the atmosphere, soil and water.

The barbaric and deliberate war crimes committed against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia by US/NATO forces are war crimes against humanity. These attacks were to force the government to give up it’s national integrity and succumb to the economic and political demands of imperialism.

Notes

1. Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Directorate for Information,  Special issue from 24 March to 24 April pg2
2. Permanent Mission of the Republic of Yugoslavia Press Release #03/04 pg2
3. Permanent Mission of the Republic of Yugoslavia Press Release #14/04 22 April 1999 pg3
4. New York Times July 14, 1999 "Serbian Town Bombed by NATO Fears Effects of Toxic Chemicals"
5. New York Times July 14, 1999 "Serbian Town Bombed by NATO Fears Effects of Toxic Chemicals"
6. New York Times July 14, 1999 "Serbian Town Bombed by NATO Fears Effects of Toxic Chemicals"
7. New York Times July 14, 1999 "Serbian Town Bombed by NATO Fears Effects of Toxic Chemicals"
8. New York Times July 14, 1999 "Serbian Town Bombed by NATO Fears Effects of Toxic Chemicals"

Commission of Inquiry
c/o International Action Center
39 West 14^th Street, Room 206
New York, NY 10011
email: iacenter@iacenter.org
http://www.iacenter.org
phone: 212 633-6646
fax: 212 633-2889

war crimes

Table of Contents: Selected Research Findings