THE REVIEW LIST Collateral Damage Report
[The following comes from data by Michel Chossudovsky, professor of economics at the University of Ottawa. While statistics are the first casualty of war and should be approached with extreme caution, neither the White House nor the media conglomerates appear interested in providing us any estimates on such matters.]
--Number of jobless created by bombing: 500,000 [Yugoslav sources] --Value of property destroyed: $100 billion [Western estimates] --Number of schools hit: 150 [Yugoslav sources] --Number of students left without classrooms: 800,000 [Yugoslavian sources] --Hospitals damaged or destroyed: 13 [Yugoslavian sources] --Historic sites damaged or destroyed: Gracanica monastery, dating back to the 14th century, the Pec Patriarchate (13th century), the Rakovica monastery and the Petrovarardin Fortress, all on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
--"No city or town In Yugoslavia is being spared. There are untold civilian casualties. The beautiful capital city of Belgrade is in flames and fumes from a destroyed chemical plant are making it necessary to use gas masks." -- International Center for Peace and Justice
Chossudovsky makes these additional points
--Cruise missiles use depleted uranium highly toxic to humans, both chemically as a heavy metal and radiologically as an alpha particle emitter. Since the Gulf War, depleted uranium has been a substitute for lead in bullets and missiles. According to scientists it is most likely a major contributor to the Gulf War Syndrome experienced both by the veterans and the people of Iraq. According radiobiologist Dr. Rosalie Bertell, president of the International Institute of Concern for Public Health:
"When used in war, the depleted uranium (DU) bursts into flame [and] releasing a deadly radioactive aerosol of uranium, unlike anything seen before. It can kill everyone in a tank. This ceramic aerosol is much lighter than uranium dust. It can travel in air tens of kilometers from the point of release, or be stirred up in dust and resuspended in air with wind or human movement. It is very small and can be breathed in by anyone: a baby, pregnant woman, the elderly, the sick. This radioactive ceramic can stay deep in the lungs for years, irradiating the tissue with powerful alpha particles within about a 30 micron sphere, causing emphysema and/or fibrosis. The ceramic can also be swallowed and do damage to the gastro-intestinal tract. In time, it penetrates the lung tissue and enters into the blood stream. ...It can also initiate cancer or promote cancers which have been initiated by other carcinogens".
--According to Paul Sullivan, executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center:
"In Yugoslavia, it's expected that depleted uranium will be fired in agricultural areas, places where livestock graze and where crops are grown, thereby introducing the specter of possible contamination of the food chain."
MICHEL CHOSSUDOVSKY chossudovsky at sprint.ca