Yugoslav army finds radioactive sites

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Yugoslav experts have measured radioactivity levels up to 1,100 times the normal in five areas hit by NATO's depleted uranium-tipped munitions, an army chief has said.

The Yugoslav army estimated that between one and 1.5 tonnes of depleted uranium had been fired at targets, excluding Kosovo province, during the 1999 bombing campaign.

About 2.5 hectares (5.5 acres) of land had been contaminated, Colonel Milenko Rilak said.

He stressed during a debate organised by the Serbian health and environment ministries that the affected areas had been isolated from the general population.

"Locations outside Kosovo on which NATO used this ammunition is mostly non-arable land and is far from urban centres which has largely reduced the danger of contamination," Rilak said.

Soil tests carried out by experts at four sites in southern Serbia and one in Montenegro had shown radioactivity ranging from nine to 1,100 times normal levels.

The highest level was measured near the southern Serbian town of Vranje, Rilak said.

A representative of the Vinca Nuclear Physics Institute, which carried out the tests, said the population was not in danger because the areas had been properly marked.

"There is no realistic danger for the population," said the institute's Srpko Markovic.

He said there was no proof as yet of the existence of the so-called "Balkan syndrome."

"The statistical indicators of the (peacekeeping) soldiers who have been taken ill are not significant enough to state with certainty that uranium has caused the illness," Markovic added.

The debate was organised in response to growing alarm over reports that NATO peacekeepers had fallen ill possibly from exposure to the ammunition used in the Kosovo and Bosnian conflicts.

Serbian Health Minister Nada Kostic said a team would be set up to monitor effects of the radiation on the population, especially in the affected areas in southern Serbia.

"It is important for our public that the experts are here, already giving relevant data, everything is being monitored, that there is no reason for panic and that nothing can slip out of control," she said.

Markovic said the institute had conducted tests at 250 other locations in Serbia proper shortly after they were bombed during the 11-month air campaign to halt Belgrade's repressive policies in Kosovo and had registered no presence of radiation.

He said there was no danger any longer of uranium being dispersed by air, but warned that there was still some risk of it entering ground water.

Doctors participating in the debate said they had not registered a higher incidence of malignant diseases since the conflict but warned that such illnesses usually took several years to develop.

Miodrag Djordjevic, the head of the Bezanijska Kosa medical centre, was pessimistic and forecast a 30 percent increase of cancer illnesses over the next 15 years, blaming bombing-related radioactive as well as bacterial and chemical contamination.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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